The Patriots handled playing in poor conditions better than the Ravens did and that was a major reason why they pulled off the 23-17 upset Sunday night.
Conditions got worse as the game went along as light showers and a steady breeze turned into torrential downpours and strong winds in the second half. And then it was an absolute monsoon for the Ravens’ final drive of the game.
New England clearly handled it better, as it did not turn the ball over once. Meanwhile, Baltimore finished with only one turnover, but Lamar Jackson had issues with multiple snaps that turned into big losses on several plays.
Here’s what the Patriots had to say about the weather afterwards.
Bill Belichick: “It got progressively worse as the game went along. It wasn't bad at the beginning and then just a little precipitation, a little rain there at the end. But, again, we practice in that during the course of the year and handle the wet ball and all that, so whatever we get, we get. I thought that the hardest part was really the, Jake handling the ball on the punts and the field goals. Those are tough plays. But just in general, David and Cam on the shotgun snaps and the ball handling there, they did a good job on that. Gunner, ball handling there. Some of the Ravens had some trouble with that, but I thought overall we executed those pretty well, which was good. It was good.”
Cam Newton: "We had a couple close calls with trying to gather the snap. Obviously it was a factor for them. But having the mentality to stay mentally tough throughout that whole tsunami it felt like, we just wanted to make sure that we do great things while we have the football, protecting the football, making great decisions. It affected just a throw or two for me. But just being in manageable situations kind of helps too."
Damien Harris: “Yeah, I mean, it was interesting because I think when I was in college, I might have played in the rain once and it never even compared to that. And so you know I've always been like, ‘I don't want to play in the rain.’ It's just not my thing. I've never really had a reason to want to play in the rain. Some guys love that stuff but I've always been kind of one of those guys. I prefer it to be like 65 and sunny, but being out there in that atmosphere and being a part of this team in such a special moment, including the weather. … It definitely makes you more conscious of ball security and just playing the game the right way. Trying to stay on your feet, protect the ball and all those kinds of things. So, they definitely put the stress on that, but that's our job as an offense to go out there, protect the ball, play good, clean sound fundamental football. You know, we know that there's times where it's going to be wet and the winds going to be windy. We can't control those things but at the end of the day we can still control how we go out there and play.”
Adrian Phillips: “They like to run the ball so I do not know if it really affected them that much. I know that they had a couple of bad snaps, I want to say four of them, that they wish they could have back. Other than that, that is perfect for their offense. For a team like them, you want it raining out there, you want the bad weather games because now it plays into what they do. Once we ended up taking the lead it ended up working out badly for them because they had to throw the ball and it was hard to catch in that weather. Once we took the lead it ended up helping us a lot.”
Chase Winovich: “I was dancing, and I was having fun. At first you kind of resist the rain and try to stay dry enough where you can still tackle, but after a while it is just a matter of taking the approach and mindset where you tell yourself you want it to pour and be cold because if you have that mindset and your opponent doesn’t, that gives you an edge. When you have that attitude, it becomes infectious to your teammates. Playing in the rain was fun.”
