The San Francisco 49ers won't host fans inside Levi's Stadium when they play the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday — air quality permitting. That could be seen as a negative when it comes to creating energy and a real home-field advantage. It might also be an advantage for aggressive defensive linemen who won't be distracted by the noise of a hostile environment and be able to react to the snap of the football more quickly.
Right tackle Mike McGlinchey sees some advantages to quieter NFL stadiums, though, correcting any perceived misconceptions that they might benefit some defensive fronts.
"Actually, I think that it plays to our advantage with no crowd noise, especially if you go on the road," McGlinchey explained. "Offensive lineman, it's a tough deal when you don't have a snap count, and you can't hear your quarterback, so you have to go on a steady thing all day so you can keep it uniform so that everybody can get their timing right for the whole play.
"But when you're able to use the snap count, you've got to be able to change it up, do different types of things to make sure the defense is on their heels a little bit. So I think the lack of crowd noise plays to an offensive lineman's advantage if you're disciplined enough to use the cadence."
McGlinchey also noted that Week 1 kind of snuck up on him with everything that has been going on in the world, no offseason practices before training camp, and no preseason games.
"It's a little more unassuming. It's a little more like, 'Holy crap, it's game week!'" McGlinchey said. "It just kind of came up on you, it kind of snuck up on you a little more than normal. Normally, you have things that happen; you have an offseason in April, May, and June to get prepared without necessarily the high pressure of the season coming.
"And then you have training camp and the preseason games, and it's all kind of a gradual build-up to everything that you worked for, which is the regular season.
"I think it just came on a little quicker this year. It's a little more unassuming because there wasn't the build-up to get there. But once we got through Wednesday, Thursday, Friday this week, it started to feel like a real game week again, and I think everybody's really ready to go."