Cold weather not a factor in New York Giants and Atlanta Falcons performance – NFL News Update
As the New York Giants and Atlanta Falcons prepare to face each other in a must-win game on Sunday, January 08, 2012, apart from battling with each other, both the teams will have to deal with extremely cold weather.
However, the Giants and Falcons do not think that such conditions will affect them in terms of performance and their game-play tactics.
As per the ever-changing forecast, rain and snow showers might freeze the winter breeze on game day.
Despite the claims of adapting to the conditions, it will come to no one’s surprise that the Giants are expected to have an edge over their opponents.
The Giants play their home games at the MetLife Stadium, which is an outdoor stadium, making them used to the given conditions, certainly putting them at ease in comparison to their rival team.
When asked about how the team is going to deal with the cold weather, Giants’ coach, Tom Coughlin, said that his team would not be facing any problems when the time comes.
While pointing out that the Giants have played in more severe conditions before, Coughlin said that he is not going to devise a separate strategy for the worsening weather.
“We would try to go in with our exact plan, not make a lot of changes. We’ve played in inclement weather. We’ve played in rain. We’ve played in it all before. We would try to stick with our plan and then we’d have to adjust according to how bad the situation
was”, Coughlin said.
Giants’ quarterback, Eli Manning, also seems undeterred by the weather, saying that he is not going to pay attention to such undermining factors.
Manning maintained that weather conditions are a natural phenomenon, which can be dealt with mental toughness.
Unlike the Giants, Falcons are not given to display an impressive performance when it comes to playing away games.
Their home field, the Georgia Dome, is an indoor stadium where the weather conditions can be controlled.
Falcons have lost only two games on their home field, whereas being defeated four times on the road.
Despite the record, Falcons think that they are strong enough to deal with the weather.
Their quarterback, Matt Ryan, might be at ease as he has played many games on open fields, back in his college days.
However, those days are over and the Falcons have played more indoor games lately, but Falcons’ coach, Mike Smith, believes that Ryan will be able to make effective plays in cold weather.
"Matt [Ryan] is from up there in the Northeast and has played a lot of games in the pros and in college in the outdoors even though we play our games indoors. I don't think that is going to be a concern, I think most of our guys are accustomed to playing
outside", Smith said.
The weather forecast is constantly changing and one might wonder how the conditions on the big day will be, but it seems that both the teams are ready to tackle the weather and get going with the National Football League (NFL) playoffs.
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