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Many of you love fantasy sports, especially football. I mean, heck, 41.5 million people played it this year alone. With respect to all other sports, lets face it, fantasy football is the real fantasy sport.
Even I get it. The two years I did it, I enjoyed it and it took up little of my time (even though I was incredibly bad). Well, with the fantasy football playoffs beginning this week for many leagues, we here at Wx Or Not have decided to begin a Fantasy Football forecast! Hopefully many of your players play in domes, or at least know how to prepare for the conditions.
What I will do is give the game, the time and then a bit of commentary on the game itself. The link that is within the game title itself is a link to the nfl.com preview. Then I will give a brief overview of why I made the forecast I did. The gametime forecast will then follow, and I will have scale of 1-10 on the odds that the weather significantly impacts your players (1 being the least and 10 the most).
Sunday, December 28th
Buffalo @ New England; 12 PM CST: You know, I hate the Patriots. Not like I hate UofL Basketball, but I hate them. Their fans are kinda pretentious and arrogant, and Bill Belichick is a mumbling man, and very few understand them. Buffalo needs this. That doesn’t mean they’ll win. Of course it doesn’t. However, I have an upset here. Go Bills.
Weatherwise, a cold front is looking to move through the Buffalo area by Sunday morning, leaving a northwesterly flow in response. Skies should be partly to mostly cloudy, with a slim chance of precip and temps in the mid 30s.
Gametime Forecast: Mostly cloudy, and 36ºF. Winds out of the northwest calm to 5 mph. Weather Impact: 1/10.
Cleveland @ Baltimore; 12 PM CST: Poor Cleveland. They lost to a bad team from the worst division in football, and now they have to play an okay Baltimore team. Still, though. The Browns did this to themselves. They chose JOHNNY MANZEIL over Teddy Bridgewater, who was an easy, easy pick at the QB position. He may win offensive rookie of the year, and has been proving why he may have been worth the pick by Cleveland. Oh well.
Baltimore should win this game, even if it cloudy. A low pressure looks to be moving to the north of the area by game time, and though atmospheric flow with be southwesterly, it looks like temps will be held down with showers in the area. Winds shouldn’t be an issue, but cold rain will be.
Gametime Forecast: Cloudy, with widespread rain showers. 44ºf, with winds out of the southwest. Tears of disappointed Browns fans will be mixed in with the rain. Weather Impact: 6/10 because of rain.
Chicago @ Minnesota; 12 PM CST: Speaking of Teddy Bridgewater, his team plays at home, with a good chance to end the season with a really good record considering Bridgewater was thrown into the fire and Adrian Peterson was amongst controversy all season. The bears can’t play up to the animal their name holds, and so I see the Vikings conquering this one.
This one is looking cold. Real cold, actually. A cold front is currently ushering in colder air across the northern Plains region, and this will settle in by tomorrow morning. With an arctic high pressure settling in across the region, precip will be minimized, and clouds shouldn’t be a major issue because of this high pressure. Conditions look good other than the temperatures.
Weather Impact: 23ºf, with mostly sunny skies. Light winds, and a bunch of weak bears. Weather impact: 3/10 because of the cold.
Dallas @ Washington; 12 PM CST: So, maybe reverse psychology does exist. Maybe, just maybe. Or maybe football is just weird this year. The Cowboys are actually good and I hate it. I remember the first week that I did this, I talked about how I hate them, and have picked against them since that week. Well, maybe if I pick the Cowboys this week, they’ll lose!
(Not happening).
I guess if I wanted to, I could copy and paste the forecast for Baltimore. I mean, its not always the same (see, well, all of winter weather forecasting everywhere for a lesson how how 30 miles can make a HUGE difference), but given that they are both in the warm sector of a low pressure system, their forecasts will be super similar. However, it could be raining fire, hailing truck sized hailstones and the world could basically be ending, and the Redskins still wouldn’t have a chance. Maybe if they win, ESPN will make a 30 for 30 about the game.
Gametime Forecast: A lot of Cowboy touchdowns, with rain showers and a temperature of 46ºf. Winds should be out of the south and southwest. Weather Impact: 6/10 because of rain.
Jacksonville @ Houston; 12 PM CST: NRG stadium is a dome. You know what that means! Easy forecast!
My dad like the Texans, so maybe i shouldn’t root for them. But again, it is hard for me to root for Jacksonville. They are just so awful, and most towns that end with “Ville” aren’t great anyways. Louisville being the main one.
So, with this being a dome, I am gonna call for a rare snow event in Houston. By snow, I mean flurries. By flurries, I mean a flurry of JJ Watt sacks.
Gametime Forecast: A flurry of JJ Watt sacks and the Jags being knee deep in their own awfulness. Weather Impact: who knows.
Indianapolis @ Tennessee; 12 PM CST: I have to drive past this stadium on Tuesday. Maybe there will still be Titans fans crying there. How did a team so bad get such an epic team name? The Titans should be ruling the world at this point! The Titans were epic in Greek Mythology, so their awfulness in the NFL is just depressing. However, I refuse to pick Indianapolis anymore.
A cold front will be marching across the lower Ohio Valley region, and this will help to push the moisture and heavier rain showers out of the region by gametime. Winds will be out of the northwest, and cooler air will filter into the region. Rain showers should be moving out of the region, and the game should just feature mostly cloudy skies.
Gametime Forecast: 44ºf, with isolated rain showers. Mostly cloudy, with wins 5-10 mph out of the northwest. Tennessee may or may not end the season on a good note. Weather impact: 3/10 because of isolated rain.
San Diego @ Kansas City; 12 PM CST: If you wanna be impressed with a team’s performance, just look at the Chargers in the second half last week. They were own by what felt like a million going into halftime, but they ended up coming out on top with an excellent performance from Phillip Rivers. I would look for the Chargers to continue charging onward to a win.
Kansas City looks to be under the influence of a weak high pressure system to their southeast, and this will push winds to the southwest. I would anticipate temps to be a bit higher than guidance, and I am gonna go into the upper 30s. Precip won’t be a factor, and it looks like skies will be partly to mostly sunny.
Gametime Forecast: 37ºf, and mostly sunny skies. Winds out of the southwest at 5-10 mph. Weather Impact: 1/10.
NYJ @ Miami; 12 PM CST: Hey, another Miami forecast! I like the way this works.
I really don’t have a clue on who will win this. All I know is that neither team is good, but that Miami has an AWESOME comeback last week that was won by a last second safety! That is super cool.
Weather looks incredible. Think of your ideal day, and it may exist in south Florida tomorrow afternoon. A slight on shore breeze of around 7 mph, warm temps, partly to mostly cloudy skies, etc. Oh my goodness. Maybe I can just fly there tonight.
Gametime Forecast: 77ºf, partly to mostly cloudy skies, with isolated storms. Winds out of the southeast at 5-10 mph. Weather Impact: 3/10 because of isolated storms.
New Orleans @ Tampa Bay; 12 PM CST: Well, looky here. Another Florida forecast!!! This looks to be equally as nice as Miami in terms of weather, as temps look to be in the mid and upper 70s, but under mostly cloudy skies. Although, this is an easier game to pick. I have a tie.
Gametime Forecast: 76ºf under mostly cloudy skies, but gradual clearing to partly cloudy looks likely. Winds light out of the south. A really good chance the football becomes so bad that a black hole opens and envelops the Earth. Weather Impact: 2/10, barring the black hole.
Philadelphia @ NYG; 12 PM CST: This will be interesting. The Eagles are on a 3 game slide, and the Giants began their late season shot at the super bowl a bit too late, winning 3 in a row. The Eagles have gone quickly from awesome to suck, and its just no good. Similarly to the DC area, NYC will be in the warm sector of the low pressure to its north. This will keep it cloudy and relatively warm, with some rain showers throughout the game. Temps will be in the low to mid 40s, and winds will be out of the south and west.
Gametime Forecast: 44ºf, with rain showers. Winds out of the southwest at 5-10 mph. Look for the last fall of the one great Eagles. Weather Impact: 5/10 because of rain.
Carolina @ Atlanta; 3:25 PM CST: Ahh, a break from forecasting. It is nice to have dome games in the schedule because it makes forecasting for 16 games a bit easier. However, coming up with cool things to say about the Dome weather is tough. I have to get creative and that is even tougher. However, both of these teams suck. So to keep it interesting, I am picking the Falcons!
Weatherwise, it looks like the groudscrew is gonna keep it colder in there. Gonna make it snow. Make it cool. Make it nice. Domes, yeah.
Gametime Forecast: 16ºf in the stadium, with a lot of artificial snowfall. They have to make it interesting. Real Weather Impact: 0/10.
Oakland @ Denver; 3:25 PM CST: I really hope that Denver wins this one. If they don’t, then I’m gonna have to hear my brother whine about the Broncos losing. So, even if the Raiders were undefeated and winning by an average of 29 a game (subtle reference to a college team we all know), I would still pick the Broncos.
It is looking like there are gonna be some clouds within the area at gametime, and that will likely continue. Temps look chilly, though. If Denver needs field goals, their dreams will be slightly harder (cold air is dense).
Gametime Forecast: 33ºf, with easterly winds and partly cloudy skies. A good chance Peyton Manning breaks out of his slump. Weather Impact: 2/10.
Detroit @ Green Bay; 3:25 PM CST: This is probably the game of the week. I believe this is for the NFC title, too. Detroit has so may weapons, and is FINALLY realizing their potential this year, and Aaron Rodgers hasn’t had his best stretch of games recently. Not to day he is playing bad, he just hasn’t been incredible. And I mean Detroit has some awesome playmakers (aka Megatron).
It is looking as if arctic air will begin infiltrating the region on Sunday evening, leaving temps to drop throughout the game. The mid 20s is as good as it’ll get by gametime, and its looking pretty breezy out of the west. Winds could be in the 10-15 mph range at the beginning of the game, and subsiding as the game goes on. It looks like there will be plenty of clouds, but little in the way of precipitation across the area.
Gametime Forecast: 26ºf and dropping, under mostly cloudy skies. Winds will be out of the west at 10-15 mph. Windchills may be a problem as the game goes on. Weather Impact: 4/10 because of the cold.
Arizona @ San Fransisco; 3:25 PM CST: I give the 49ers a hard time, but I really kinda feel bad for them. They were supposed to be poised for another Super Bowl run, but they kinda have fallen apart within the mist of rumors surrounding Harbaugh’s tenure there. Oh well. The Seahawks were better, and are better and they wouldn’t have made it anyways. The Cardinals should win, and end one of the weirdest coaching stories ever.
The weather is looking pretty nice for the Bay area this weekend! They’ll be under the influence of a weak high pressure system, which will keep clouds suppressed and help keep temps pretty warm. Temps should be in the 50s by gametime, with mostly sunny skies!
Gametime Forecast: 54ºf, with mostly sunny skies and a Harbaugh tantrum. Weather Impact: 2/10.
St. Louis @ Seattle; 3:25 PM CST: I know the Rams have no chance. Despite their stellar defense, they beat Seattle earlier this year. Don’t do that. Please. Don’t make a Seattle team that is rolling mad. Don’t do it. Oh man. Why couldn’t the Rams have lost??
Oh well. Anyways, Seattle isn’t looking too pleasant tomorrow. Its looking cloudy, cool and showery. Not super showery, but annoying showery. Like “say it don’t spray it” mist.
Gametime Forecast: 42ºf, with say-it-don’t-spray-it showers in the area. Otherwise, cloudy with light winds and a Seahawks win! Weather Impact: 3/10 because of the showers.
Cincinnati @ Pittsburgh; 7:30 PM CST: At this point, I am tired of both teams. I don’t like either of them. I really want to see a tie just so that the Bengals can say that they tied twice. That is what I am calling for. The second tie of the week!
High pressure looks to be settling across the area as we move into the game’s kickoff time. This looks to bring some cooler air into the region, but will keep precip out. It looks like clouds will be clearing as the evening goes along, and it will only get clearer, allowing temps to drop.
Gametime Forecast: 34ºf, with mostly cloudy skies and clearing as the game goes on. A chance of a tie. Weather Impact: 2/10.
Overall, this week of NFL games doesn’t look to feature too much crazy weather, outside of the occasional rain game, things look quiet. Again. What is rough is that I haven’t had to forecast any snow games during this project, and that has been frustrating.
Most fantasy leagues end this week, but I intend on doing sports forecasts at least once a week leading up to the Super Bowl. I may throw in the some random sports forecasts, but football will be the biggest piece.