Tag: forecast

Saints could face adverse weather conditions in their Week 16 matchup

The Saints could be facing some adverse weather conditions in Week 16, as they travel to Lambeau Field to take on the Green Bay Packers

The New Orleans Saints do not face much cold weather, being from Louisiana and playing indoors pretty much rules that out for home games and their division is typically in warm locations as well (with the exception of occasional late-season games with the Carolina Panthers).

However, In Week 16 they could be facing cold weather in their matchup, as they travel to Lambeau Field to take on the Green Bay Packers. As of right now, the weather predictions from multiple weather outlets place this game well below freezing, with the following being predicted by the respective sources:

  • The Weather Channel: Monday will be a high of 33 degrees, low of 28 degrees with a 24% chance of snow or sleet throughout the day. High chance of snow Thursday as well before freezing temps Friday through Sunday.
  • Google Weather: Monday will be a high of 29 degrees, low of 25 degrees with a 35% chance of precipitation, likely snow.
  • AccuWeather: Monday will be a high of 28 degrees, low of 24 degrees with a 65% chance of precipitation, likely snow.
  • National Weather Service: No direct weather for Monday as of yet, but 6-10 day outlook expects temperature to be near or slightly below average for this time of year.

Ultimately, there is an extremely high chance of this being what is constituted as a “cold-weather game”, meaning it is below 32 degrees at kickoff. According to Stathead Football, the Saints have played 15 such games in their existence, and have a 6-9 record overall in those matchups. However, they are 2-0 in their most recent of these matchups, which were in 2022 against the Cleveland Browns (6 degrees at kickoff, 17-10 victory) and 2010 against the Cincinnati Bengals (32 degrees at kickoff, 34-30 victory).

Of these 15 matchups, two have been at Lambeau Field, the first in 1971 (30 degrees at kickoff, 29-21 victory), and the second was 1976 (31.8 degrees at kickoff, 27-32 loss). This will be the first time however (pending the temperature) that the Saints have ever played a “cold-weather game” on Monday Night Football. Ultimately we will see if they can handle the temperature regardless, and the potential snow, as they get what could be their final primetime game of the 2024 season.

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It is going to be very hot at kickoff Saturday for Wisconsin vs Buffalo

Weather report for Wisconsin vs Buffalo:

This is your Wisconsin Badgers Week 1 Weather Report. Expect these previews every Friday morning before the Badgers’ upcoming game.

I want to write these about inclement weather, sub-freezing temperatures and snow. That’s the football weather I’ve grown quite fond of.

Saturday at Camp Randall when the Buffalo Bulls come to town it will be quite the opposite. The forecast calls for temperatures in the 90s and sunny skies.

As a result, UWBadgers.com announced fans will be permitted to carry in sealed, unopened bottles of water (limit of two per person). It is also recommended fans take precautions to shield themselves from the sun and wear lightweight, light-colored clothing.

In baseball, managers would call this “hitting weather.” For this iteration of the Wisconsin Badgers, I’ll call it “throwing weather.” The elements will hold off for a few months, so this is a golden opportunity for Phil Longo and the Wisconsin offense to air it out.

Related:

*Predicting every Big Ten team’s 2023 wins and losses, final record and the conference champ

*Final Wisconsin football 2023 game-by-game predictions

*Five takeaways from Wisconsin’s Week 1 depth chart

ESPN FPI forecasts Chiefs’ win total along with playoff, Super Bowl chances

After 10,000 simulations of the NFL season, ESPN’s Football Power Index favors the #Chiefs once again.

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ESPN’s Seth Walder has released Football Power Index (FPI) forecasts for the 2023 NFL season.

If you’re unfamiliar with ESPN’s FPI, it’s a projection and rating model for NFL teams developed back in 2015. It takes a number of different factors into account, such as previous team efficiencies, EPA per play, returning starters and injuries in order to predict offensive, defensive and special teams efficiency for a season. Each of those different factors is accounted for in single-game projections before each team’s season is simulated by ESPN thousands of times. The final simulations provide calculations for win totals, playoff and Super Bowl chances for each NFL team.

After simulations from ESPN, the Kansas City Chiefs rank first by a wide margin with a 6.4 FPI rating. The next closest teams are the Buffalo Bills with a 5.5 FPI rating and the Philadelphia Eagles with a 5.0 FPI rating. The Chiefs are projected to finish the season with a 10.6-6.3 record, basically meaning they could finish with an 11-6 or 12-5 record for the 2023 NFL season.

Kansas City, once again, has a very high chance to make the playoffs. They’re given a 77.3% chance to make the playoffs this season, which is the highest mark of any AFC team and the third-highest mark of all NFL clubs. They have a 55.6% chance to win the AFC West division for the eighth consecutive season. They’re given the third-best odds of any team to make the divisional round and conference title game.

Surprisingly, the Chiefs are given the second-best chance to win the Super Bowl at 13%, while the team they defeated in Super Bowl LVII is given the best chance at 14%.

ESPN also suggests that the Chiefs will play a gauntlet of a schedule, finishing second-most-difficult schedule in 2023 next to only the New England Patriots.

Some other nuggets related to Kansas City from ESPN’s FPI forecast:

  • The Lions, who the Chiefs face in Week 1 of the 2023 NFL season, rank 11th in ESPN’s FPI ratings.
  • The Chargers are the second-highest-rated AFC West team at 7th.
  • The Jets are the only team rated in the top 10 that K.C. faces in the first six games of the 2023 NFL season.

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Notre Dame Blue-Gold Game: Weather Forecast

Welcome to spring in the Midwest.

“If you don’t like the weather in South Bend, just wait 15 minutes and it’s bound to change.”

I don’t know who first said the above quote about really any Midwestern town but they were certainly right about this weekend’s weather forecast.  After South Bend will challenge 80 degrees on Wednesday and Thursday, temperatures take a dip on Friday and Saturday appears to be one of those days nobody enjoys.

According to the Weather Channel, Friday will have a high of 63 degrees with a good amount of sun. Saturday will have a high of just 46 degrees with rain and clouds expected. The annual Blue-Gold game is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. ET.

If you’re headed to the Bend for the weekend make sure to pack accordingly.  If you’re one of the several big-time recruits headed to make a visit, please keep an open mind.

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Chilly night expected in Jacksonville for Chargers vs. Jaguars

It’s not often Jaguars fans have to bundle up for a home game, but Saturday is expected to be a cold one.

It’s not often that Jacksonville Jaguars fans need to bundle up for a game at TIAA Bank Field, but an upcoming playoff matchup against the Los Angeles Chargers looks like it’ll be the exception.

While temperatures are expected to climb into the 70s this week in North Florida, a cold front in the forecast is projected to cool things down over the weekend.

The Weather Channel is predicting a high of 55 degrees and low of 34 degrees in Jacksonville on Saturday. The AccuWeather forecast has the high at 52 and low at 36.

With kickoff scheduled for 8:15 p.m. ET — the first ever night playoff game at TIAA Bank Field — it could be one of the coldest home games in Jaguars history. The record belongs to a December 2010 game against Washington that was 38 degrees at kickoff. The top 10 coldest games in Jaguars history were all on the road.

The Chargers are currently listed as a one-point favorite over the Jaguars on BetMGM.

The Saints are better in cold-weather games than you think

The Saints may be a dome team, but their record over the last 8 seasons outdoors and in cold weather might surprise you, via @RossJacksonNOLA:

Call the New Orleans Saints what they are: a cold-weather team. Okay, that is obviously not true, given how many games they play inside the climate-controlled Caesars Superdome. But the team’s record when outdoors and in cold winter weather is better than some would have you believe. 

Year after year, from the moment the schedule is officially released, the narrative arises that the Saints can not win in cold-weather matchups. Ahead of the 2022 season, the team’s Week 16 and 17 games were quickly circled. In facing the Cleveland Browns and Philadelphia Eagles on the road, respectively, concerns of cold weather in the hosts’ outdoor stadiums immediately arose. Which are especially commonly brought up around New Orleans, but other dome teams as well. 

But the good news is that the Saints met the first of those challenges head-on and secured a 17-10 victory in the process, leaving the Cleveland tundra with a win. But that result is not new for New Orleans. In fact, since 2014, the Saints are 5-1 in outdoor games that are played below 40 degrees Fahrenheit at kickoff. That includes a January playoff win against the Eagles in the 2013 postseason. 

The upcoming Week 17 game in the City of Brotherly Love is not expected to be a chilly one. The current forecasts show the temperature is expected to hover in the low 50’s throughout the contest. Given the Saints’ track record over the last 8 seasons, and their recent losses to the Eagles and starting quarterback Jalen Hurts the last two years, perhaps it would better for New Orleans if it were colder. 

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Wind chill has Cleveland’s Saints-Browns game feeling colder than ‘polar weather conditions’

The wind chill has Cleveland’s Saints-Browns game feeling colder than the South Pole:

Sheesh. The New Orleans Saints and Cleveland Browns are doing their best to warm up at FirstEnergy Stadium under heavy wind and snow, and yeah, it’s cold. It’s actually so cold with the wind chill, ESPN Stats and Info reports, that the on-field temperature at kickoff (a projected negative-21 degrees Fahrenheit) could be colder than the current temperature at the South Pole (negative-15 degrees).

Yikes. See the conditions for yourself from those on the ground in Cleveland:

Saints dress appropriately for snowbound Week 16 game vs. Browns

The New Orleans Saints announced their uniform combo for a snowbound Week 16 game against the Cleveland Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium:

We’re in for the first New Orleans Saints snow game in years, and the team is dressing appropriately in their white away jerseys and matching white pants. Meanwhile, the Cleveland Browns will be rocking their “Color Rush” alternate uniforms. Saturday’s forecast for FirstEnergy Stadium is grim, calling for strong wing gusts and inches of snow, so maybe the Saints are looking for camouflage.

If you’re curious, here is how the Saints have performed in their all-white look (and every other uniform combination) dating back to 2006:

  1. “Black and Gold” throwbacks: 3-1 (.750)
  2. White jerseys, white pants: 9-4 (.692)
  3. Black jerseys, gold pants: 24-15 (.615)
  4. White jerseys, black pants: 42-27 (.609)
  5. White jerseys, gold pants: 37-25 (.597)
  6. Black jerseys, black pants: 49-36 (.576)
  7. “Color Rush” alternates: 9-7 (.563)

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Cleveland weather forecast calls for wind and snow in upcoming Saints-Browns game

The Cleveland weather forecast calls for wind and snow in the upcoming Saints-Browns game on Christmas Eve, with a high temperature of 15 degrees:

Yikes. The weather forecast for the upcoming New Orleans Saints-Cleveland Browns game on Christmas Eve calls for wind and snow, with a high temperature of just 15 degrees. Weather.com’s 10-day forecast describes the expected conditions as “Windy with occasional snow showers. High near 15 Farenheit. Winds (southwest) at 25 to 40 (miles per hour). Chance of snow 50%. 1 to 3 inches of snow expected. Higher wind gusts possible.”

FirstEnergy Stadium is oriented east-to-west, so while specialists won’t be kicking into the wind there should be a cross-breeze that may push kicks awry. We should also expect both teams to lean heavily on their run game. The Browns have one of the NFL’s best running backs in Nick Chubb (who is averaging 5.0 yards per carry and 89.4 rushing yards per game this season), and the Saints are asking Alvin Kamara to handle the second-highest average of rushing attempts per game (13.7) of his career.

Neither squad has thrown the ball effectively this year. Cleveland welcomed Deshaun Watson into the lineup three weeks ago, but he’s clocking just 189.3 passing yards per game while throwing as many touchdown passes as interceptions (2), taking 6 sacks along the way. For comparison, Saints quarterback Andy Dalton is averaging 218.5 passing yards per game this season. Both of these teams want to run the ball and not put the game on their quarterback’s shoulders.

So we’ll see how it works out for them in what’s looking like miserable conditions. The Saints don’t have a great history in cold-weather games (defined as below 32 degrees Fahrenheit), having gone 2-4 since 2006, but they’ve won each of their last two games played below-freezing in the 2013 playoffs (at Philadelphia) and in 2010 (at Cincinnati). If you’re traveling for this game, be sure to grab some hot cocoa.

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Isolated thunderstorms possible during Ravens vs. Jaguars

The Jaguars’ Week 12 home game against the Ravens may begin with some wet conditions.

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The beginning of a Week 12 matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and Jacksonville Jaguars could be a little wet.

According to The Weather Channel and Accuweather, isolated thunderstorms are a possibility at TIAA Bank Field when the game kicks off at 1 p.m. ET.

The gloomy weather isn’t expected to last long, though. The thunderstorms are projected to pass through North Florida and most of the Week 12 contest will likely be played under partly cloudy conditions with temperatures in the 70s.

The Ravens used to be a division rival of the Jaguars when both teams began their respective existences in the AFC Central. Visits to play the Jaguars at TIAA Bank Field have been much less frequent for the Ravens since the teams moved to the AFC South and AFC North, respectively.

The last road game for the Ravens in Jacksonville was a 19-17 win for Baltimore on a hot day early in the 2016 NFL season.