This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Wild Card Fever

Weather conditions are expected to play a major role in three of the four wild card playoff games that will be played this weekend.  While the game in Indianapolis will be played indoors at Lucas Oil Stadium others in Philadelphia, Cincinnati and Green Bay may experience chilling conditions that very well could affect play. 

In Indianapolis, Colts owner Jim Irsey pronounced that the game time conditions for tomorrows contest against the Kansas City Chiefs will be 72 degrees and dry.  That is because the Colts play indoors at Lucas Oil Stadium.  Both teams enter the game with identical 11 – 5 records.  The Chiefs, who are well rested after taking the final week of the season off, may find that beating Colts quarterback Andrew Luck in his own building won’t be easy.   In his two seasons in Indy he is  13 – 3 at home.  The Chiefs feature the running of Jamaal Charles who was the leading rusher in the AFC this season.   Look for Luck to have a good day throwing against the Chiefs 25th rank pass defense.

Tomorrow’s second game will not be as balmy.  Temperatures in Philadelphia will hover around the freezing mark but with an 8:10 P.M. start time conditions will deteriorate quickly.   Drew Brees and his New Orleans Saints were undefeated at home this season but only 3 – 5 on the road.  To compound matters the Saints have never won a road playoff game.  Both teams possess potent attacks and the result may be determined by which defense can stop the others offense. 

Find out what's happening in West Islipwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Snow is in the forecast for Sunday’s contest in Cincinnati where the San Diego Chargers will be looking to reverse a 17 – 10 defeat at the hands of the Bengals on the coast.  The Chargers have run off four straight wins since that loss.  But the Bengals were undefeated at home this season with wins against three playoff teams; the Packers, Patriots, and Colts.   

The final game of the weekend will take place on the frozen tundra of Green Bay where game time temperatures are projected to be below zero.  Both signal callers may have trouble adjusting to the frigid air.  Quarterback Aaron Rogers will try to exploit the 49ers seventh ranked pass defense in just his second game back from a broken collarbone.  San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick has never played in a game that was this cold and he may find holding onto the ball a problems with his smaller than average hand size. 

Find out what's happening in West Islipwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Often in the past, wild card playoff games have been one sided contests.  This year however it looks like all matchups are fairly even.  Now let’s hope the cold brings out the best in everyone as a prelude to what we can expect a few weeks from now at MetLife Stadium…

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?