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Broncos vs. Patriots: It's snowing in Foxboro hours before kickoff (updated)

It's snowing in Foxboro, hours before the Broncos and Patriots face off in Brady-Manning XVI. What does it mean for the game?

By kmonty

While Bill Belichick might not pay attention to the weatherman, surely he pays attention to the weather itself. Some of these images are hard to ignore.

It will be cold, it will be windy, and the snow/cold rain might not subside by kickoff (though, if we give meteorologists the benefit of the Belichickian doubt, the precipitation should stop falling by halftime).

What the weather means for Brady-Manning XVI

What does this mean for Peyton Manning and Tom Brady? Snow and cold haven't affected Manning's play much. We've taken a deep look at Manning's history in cold weather and concluded that results are inconclusive - over his career, there is evidence to suggest he has struggled slightly, but in years of late he has done better.

Over the course of his career, Peyton Manning has performed under his career averages when playing in cold weather at 40 degrees F or colder. His career QB Rating stands at 96.8. With this sample size of 20 games (which represent about 8% of all games he's played) Peyton's QB Rating when the temperature is at or below 40 degrees F is 83.5 or 13.3 points lower.

...In his last 8 games (in under 30-degree) frigid conditions, Peyton Manning has performed ABOVE his career averages, registering a 105.5 QB Rating (11.3 points above his career average).

Instead, it's the wind that can and likely will impact Manning (and possibly Brady, though he was less impacted last year).

We think the wind will be of more concern than the cold or snow as Manning and Brady square off for what is shaping up to be an epic, snowy battle of the AFC's best, but there isn't enough data or large enough sample size to say either way.

In other words: let's play some football!

Update, 30 minutes to kickoff

Mother Nature be trollin'

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