“No one can play in this game,” they said. Blizzard could affect Steelers-Bills game
Some people in Pittsburgh could experience like Christmas morning when they wake up on the day of the Steelers playoff game.
It wasn’t a White Christmas on December 25. So maybe Steelers fans who care will spend their holiday covered in white.
It most likely will be in Orchard Park, New York. A lot of white. The Buffalo neighborhood could get several feet of snow on Sunday, which is also the day that the Steelers play their first playoff game, a wild-card game against the Buffalo Bills.
“There’s going to be an extremely narrow band of lake-effect snow,” Bernie Rayno, top on-air forecast for AccuWeather reported.
“I believe there is a good chance that this will hit Orchard Park on Sunday. If it does, there will be about 1 to 3 feet of snow, and it will be blowing and drifting around a lot.” It would be a storm.”
Rayno even said that the NFL may wish to alter the time of the game from 1 p.m., which was originally planned.
“There’s no way anyone can play in this game,” Rayno said before giving up. “But I’m not the NFL’s commissioner.”
Someone said that the league has said there have been no plans to change the time or place of the game.
The Steelers were not told to prepare for any possible outcomes. A message was sent to the NFL asking for word on the situation was not answered right away.
Accweather said that the area around Orchard Park would have temperatures in the 20s and winds in the mid-30s mph.
This would mean that it would be below zero at Highmark Stadium. “Bring an emergency kit to hand in case the roads close or you get stuck in your car.”
Based in State College, AccuWeather also sent out what sounded like a mix of an alert and a warning for Pittsburghers who were going to drive the 220 miles to the Buffalo region to watch the game.
In normal times, a drive should take less than three and a half hours. But this weekend, it might take a lot longer.
Another statement from the group said that AccuWeather analyst Mike Youman said, “Give yourself a lot of time to get from residence to the stadium, as well as expect very slow traffic as well as near zero sight underneath the most powerful lake-effect bands.”
And the Steelers-Bills game could have just the worst weather of the six playoff games that are set to happen this weekend.
This Saturday night, when the Chiefs play the Miami Dolphins, it’s going to be below zero in Kansas City, and the wind chill will be in the lower teens.
You might want to bring your gloves to Highmark Stadium on Sunday afternoon. A big coat too. A hat too. It’s nothing new for the Bills to play in cold and windy weather.
With a temperature in the mid-20s, winds between 20 and 35 mph, and a chance of snow showers, Sunday could be Buffalo’s first game of the year that is played in bad weather.
“The wind might move the ball a bit,” quarterback Josh Allen said after the walk-through practice on Wednesday.
“Typically, it’s going to be, with rain like this, a game where both teams are going to run without the ball and it’s going become very possession-limited, which means we got to make these possessions count.”
Head coach Sean McDermott said before practice, “We’ve had to, excuse the pun, weather the storm that way in a lot of games here.” The way you play and run the game changes because of it. Because we have who here, it helps us get ready even more.
The wind may change how special teams kick and how much quarterback Josh Allen relies on the deep ball, but defensive end Ed Oliver hasn’t altered his mind at all.
“There are no changes. Olive said after practice, “We know what we need to do.” “Your body kind of gets rough to it, so you’re more, I guess, suited to play in it because we live in this and we walk outside in it.”