METAIRIE, La. (AP) -Lance Moore caught plenty of stone-cold footballs during college at Toledo.
Sean Payton calls plays with the knowledge and experience of someone who was once a high school and college quarterback in Illinois.
Yet the New Orleans Saints haven’t played or practiced this season in anything approaching the freezing temperatures expected in Chicago on Thursday night, so there’s some debate about how much the weather could play into the Bears’ favor.
“I think that’s kind of a made-up type thing because people see that it’s cold and we’re an indoor team,” Moore said. “Obviously, it makes sense to say, but we’ve all been there before, we’ve all played there before. We just have to play well enough to win. At the end of the game that may become an excuse for some people, but I don’t think that’s a reason to say who will win or lose a game.”
reezing.
“I do smile every time I hear that because I know it really does matter,” Smith said. “But both teams will have to play in it and it’ll be cold to our guys, too. It’s a way of life around here.”
Not only do the Saints play indoors, they often practice indoors as well, as they did on Tuesday. If anything, their air-conditioned indoor field would have provided closer conditions to Chicago than if they had practiced outside, where it was in the 70s and humid.
In Chicago, forecasts call for temperatures in the low 20s on Thursday night. It only gets worse if the wind picks up, as it’s bound to do in the Windy City.
The Saints had only one cold weather game last season. It happened to be their regular-season finale in Chicago, which the Bears won 33-25. The Saints also lost in Chicago in a snowy NFC championship game the previous season, 39-14.
However, the 2006 Saints also had one of their best games in New York on Christmas Eve, beating the Giants 30-7.
Whether the Bears (7-6) really believe cold conditions give them an advantage over the Saints (7-6), they’re insisting that it does, perhaps seeking any psychological advantage they can get in a game that features two teams trying to stay alive for a playoff berth.
Chicago linebacker Lance Briggs flat-out labeled Saints quarterback Drew Brees, who started his pro career in San Diego, as ill-equipped to handle cold weather.
“Drew Brees has been in San Diego and in New Orleans in a dome. So when he comes out here, and he’s got his hand-warmer fanny pack, it’s a whole different ballgame,” Briggs said. “He’s freezing; his blood is real thin. But we like stuff like that, we enjoy stuff like that. It’s been an advantage for us against New Orleans every year we’ve played them here, and it’s going to need to continue to be an advantage.”
Briggs could have thrown in that Brees grew up in Texas. Then again, Brees also played his college ball at Purdue, and it’s been known to get cold in Big Ten country in November.
Brees, whose 4,100 yards passing leads the NFL, said he isn’t practicing with gloves this week and probably won’t wear them in the game.
“That’s kind of a rare case,” he said. “I might do it, I might not. I’m not sure.”
Still, he didn’t discount the potential for the weather to affect the game.
“They play well at home and you throw the conditions into it in December and it makes it a pretty tough place to play.”
Payton said he was confident his team could thrive in cold weather, but also need to pay careful attention to how the conditions affect their ability to throw, catch or make cuts – and adapt quickly, preferably during warmups.
nighttime. … The trick is to deal with the mental part of that as much as anything.
“A lot of (Saints) players have played in cold weather. Nonetheless it’s been a while for anyone on this team,” Payton continued. “It is a challenge when you’re out of that environment on a regular basis. Certainly, in the division we’re in, when you look at where we go when we’re not playing at home – Atlanta, Tampa Bay and Carolina – that’s something we’re going to have to deal with.”
Add A Comment