Temperatures should be in the low 20s and the teens on Thursday night as the Kansas City Chiefs prepare to take on the Oakland Raiders. At first glance, this feels like an advantage for the Chiefs because they’re used to the cold weather games while Derek Carr and the Raiders haven’t been in as many being on the west coast.
Then there’s this, Carr’s stats under 50 degrees.
Derek Carr in 3 road games in temps below 50
— Heath Cummings (@heathcummingssr) December 6, 2016
DEN '14 18/36 158 YDS 1/1
DEN '15 12/29 135 YDS 2/0
KC '15 21/33 194 YDS 1/1
52% CMP 4.96 Y/A
Those aren’t great numbers which should be good news for the Chiefs. Except the more important factor here is that the Broncos and Chiefs defenses are really good. That’s probably a bigger deal when it comes to his performance than the cold.
The Chiefs at least have more experience in cold weather.
“For us, obviously we’ve gotten a lot of practice in the weather here, so we’ll see what the weather conditions are like for Thursday night,” Alex Smith said.
At least more experience in the NFL. Derek Carr said he played in cold weather games in college.
“Yeah, I’ve played in a lot cold games,” Carr said via quotes from the Raiders. “The one I can remember, the most recent off the top of my head, I played in Reno and that got down to about 8 [degrees] and things like that. I honestly, I don’t mind the cold. I like it. I think my wife gets mad at me for that because I always have the air on. I love the cold, so I don’t mind the cold. If it snows a little bit, that’ll be fun, too.”
One other thing that came to mind. Derek Carr has relatively small hands. Alex Smith has bigger hands than him. Hand size matters in cold weather. Something to consider.