Per the Weather Channel, when the Rams and Packers kick off their divisional round playoff game at 4:35 ET, the temperature will be somewhere between 34 and 35 degrees, with an anticipated temperature of 31 degrees later in the evening.
This is not good news for Rams quarterback Jared Goff, who played college ball at Cal and has started just two games in his NFL career in which the temperature was below freezing at kickoff. Both games were in 2018. First, there was the Rams’ 23-20 win over the Broncos in Denver on October 14, when Goff completed 14 of 28 passes for 201 yards, no touchdowns, one interception, five sacks, and a passer rating of 58.8. The kickoff temperature was 25 degrees for that one.
Then, there was the Rams’ 15-6 loss to the Bears in Week 14, in which Goff completed 20 of 44 passes for 180 yards, no touchdowns, four interceptions, three sacks, and a passer rating of 19.1 — by far the worst of his career. The kickoff temperature was 29 degrees for that one. The only good side to that game was that head coach Sean McVay got his first really good look at the work of Chicago outside linebackers coach Brandon Staley, who’s now McVay’s defensive coordinator, and the architect of the NFL’s top scoring defense in the 2020 season.
How a Bears beatdown in 2018 put Brandon Staley on Sean McVay’s radar
Goff is recovering from late-season thumb surgery, and was asked on Thursday about prepping for cold weather. He said that he way wear a glove on his throwing hand, and brought up the preparation for that Denver game in 2018.
“I don’t remember what I did in Denver a few years ago. I believe it was much colder than it was forecasted. I mean, it’s ever-changing. We’ll see how it is on game day. At the end of the day, it won’t matter in who wins or loses. We’ve got to go out there and execute. We’re preparing accordingly, as any team would in any climate. We’ll be ready to go.”
And what exactly happens to the ball in cold weather?
“I think the best way to describe it, it gets harder,” Goff said. “It gets harder and there’s less grip overall.”
So, it’s Goff’s ugly history in cold weather against a Packers defense that has trended up from 19th to 10th in pass defense DVOA in the second half of the season. We’ll see how that all shakes out.