The upcoming wild-card weekend will feature a rare third meeting between the Buffalo Bills and New England Patriots. The first pair of meetings had an unexpected guest: the weather.
In Round 1, that Week 13 contest saw the Patriots (10-7) win, 14-10. The Bills (11-6) appeared to struggle dealing with intense wind gusts that day while the Pats handled the forecast well.
The second meeting in New England the wind stayed in Buffalo. Without them featuring, it seemed like the game plan for the Bills was able to play out.
On Saturday, that same but slightly different guest will be there. It’s not expected that intense wind guests will swirl through Orchard Park, but it will be single-digit freezing temperatures.
All things considered, will the weather worry the Bills offense again? Heading toward game day, Buffalo isn’t the weather to faze them just yet.
“Throughout the course of the game, when you’re on the field, you don’t really feel it too much when you’ve got adrenaline flowing, your mind is on so many different things.” Allen said via video conference. “It’s not crazy, difficult, thing to overcome, but early on it could but tough but you’ve got to get over it.”
Thankfully for Buffalo, Allen does have a bit of history playing in the cold. He has played with the Bills for a few years now and before that his college ball was in Wyoming.
That experience helps Allen know what he needs to prepare for.
The QB said he naturally has to keep his hands warm, but his toes in particular go cold. Allen mentioned potentially having some poor circulation to his feet.
Along with Allen, Bills wide receiver Stefon Diggs know his hands as a wide need to be ready. Diggs. like Allen, isn’t too worried though based on his past experiences involving the cold, specifically.
Diggs’ previous location was Minnesota, where he thinks it is actually colder than western New York.
“It’s just going to be so cold, bro. My fingers get cold, toes get cold,” Diggs said via video conference. “I’m not too much of a complainer, and I played in one of the coldest games in history, like when we played in the playoffs versus Seattle at the Minnesota Gophers stadium. It was like negative something.”
Cold, heat, wind, or snow, Allen wrapped this thoughts on the forecast up in a truthful manner.
His toes won’t be the only ones needing an extra pair of socks. Everyone’s will, the Patriots included, so there’s no excuses.
“It’s gonna be cold for both teams. It’ll be a challenge. It’s not fun getting hit in the cold, it’s not fun catching hard passes in the cold, getting off the ground, it’s a little more exhausting throughout the course of the game,” Allen said. “I think it’s more of a mental barrier than a physical barrier.”
Bundle up, Bills.
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