The biggest factor is the Chefs’ better defense, I think.
I hope KC fans warming their pockets with baked potatoes catches on. Seems the perfect game to do so.
Raheem Mostert is officially listed as ‘questionable’, which means he may or may not be on the inactive list at kickoff. That list is released 90 minutes before kickoff.
Tyreek Hill is expected to play.
Achane is playing though. He was amazing pre-injury, and I’d still put him above Pacheco on the Chiefs.
Odd. Some books moved the odds on Browns -2.5 to -115 which indicates more people were betting on the browns and they wanted to shift it in favor of betting on Houston. But I look today and the line at Caesars and MGM moved to Browns -2. I can’t understand why the line moved to be better for the Browns if most of the money was already on them.
Moved from what? The Browns were -2.5 when I opened this thread on Tuesday. I don’t remember the odds number.
Maybe a whole bunch of late bettors put money on the Texans, which caused the line to move down half a point? Just a guess on my part.
Buffalo-Steelers should be a real picnic.
“The United States National Weather Service has a winter storm watch in effect for most of western New York from Saturday afternoon through Monday morning. The lake effect snow has forecasters predicting anywhere from 1-3 feet of snow in Orchard Park Sunday.”
No plans to move though.
I hope not. Those are some of the best games ever.
I don’t remember every playoff game I watched but I will never ever forget the 2015 wild card game in Minnesota where it was -6 degrees, -25 with wind chill. The field was slippery and hard as concrete and the game ended on a missed chip shot field goal because it was like kicking a stone in that weather.
And then there was the tuck rule game, in heavy snow in Foxborough, and Adam Vinatieri nailed the game winning field goal in that storm.
Those bad weather games are often great ones.
This is going back over 40 years but I still say it should have been Dan Fouts and the San Diego Chargers who should have gone on to Super Bowl XVI instead of the Bengals, but the AFC Championship game that year was played in Cincinnati and it was a very very cold day. Those Air Coryell teams were unstoppable, but unfortunately they also had a defense that was unstoppable — incapable of stopping anybody.
For TV viewers, I agree. It’s great entertainment to see players sliding all over the place, the field crew trying to keep the yard lines plowed, field goals blown backwards. But I really think it’s a safety issue for the fans with getting to the game in 3 feet of snow or risking frostbite in brutal winds.
Bad climate generally favors the offense. The offense knows what the play is and where they are going to go, especially receivers running their routes. It’s the defense that has a harder time cutting and adjusting on a dime to cope. Although, this is generally more of a factor on slippery/wet days, not so much cold days.
For fans in the stadium, yes. But I imagine TV revenue is a bigger factor these days.
If a stadium ever posed an actual danger to fans, I imagine they’d be forced to do something. Even if you’re just looking at dollars and cents, the liability from such a thing would be awful.
The Charges had played the previous week in Miami. The over time game was in tropical heat and humidity. Recovering from that and then going to the ice was too much.
Isn’t it good for you to heat up first then cool down? Like a caldarium/frigidarium situation in ancient Rome.
It’s like the ice baths that are all the rage these days. Except it’s for the entire game.
Money, money. Note that the league did move a previous game from Buffalo to Detroit just last year due to snow.
Of course the Buffalo stadium is always a danger to the fans - table shrapnel and gunshots.
The Chamber of Commerce will howl as well due to hotel rooms/restaurants. If it’s as bad as expected, folks aren’t getting in by plane or car anyway
Snow favors passing offense. I heard Boomer Esiason say on a radio call, “If it’s snowin’, I’m throwin’” for the reasons you state, but extreme cold makes the ball literally harder and tougher to handle, leading to possible bad throws, drops, and fumbles.
And wind has the biggest impact on the offense. Above 20 mph, you can’t throw deep against it, and it’s difficult to have any accuracy throwing with the wind or with a crosswind.
That was more due to the city being straight up shut down to the point where the teams couldn’t get to the stadium.
One of the best playoff games ever. After the game, Kellen Winslow being helped off the field by two teammates is a classic image. And the Dolphins’ hook-and-lateral play before halftime was a fantastic surprise. A great game.
Agreed. Maybe the BEST playoff game ever.