You can speculate about such factors, but the House popular vote tends to line up pretty well with opinion polling of the "generic Congressional ballot"--which is a nationwide measure that isn't affected by gerrymandering. For example, republicans were leading by up to 10 points in polling in 2010 before they ultimately won by 7 points:
https://news.gallup.com/poll/142718/gop-unprecedented-lead-g....