PHILADELPHIA – Snow could change everything when the Rams visit the Eagles on Sunday in the Divisional Round of the playoffs, especially for Los Angeles quarterback Matthew Stafford.
A Florida native who played his college ball at Georgia then spent the first 12 years of his career playing inside with the Detroit Lions, Stafford is 1-8 in games where it rains or snows with 14 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.
It’s been more than 10 years since the Eagles had a true snow game, and what happened on the December Sunday in 2013 was more than just snow. It was a flat-out blizzard.
Conditions that day aren’t expected on Sunday, but the chance of snow is close to 100 percent after 2:30. The game is set to kickoff at 3.
Stafford played in the blizzard game, won by the Eagles 34-20, and was 10-for-25 with 151 yards. Nick Foles was only slightly better, going 11-for-22 with 179 yards a touchdown and an interception.
The snow rendered all-world Lions receiver Calvin “Megatron” Johnson useless, and he was held to three catches for 52 yards.
The only one who could find traction that day was Eagles running back LeSean McCoy, who danced and darted through the driving snow for a team-record 217 yards. It’s a record that Saquon Barkley broke on Nov. 24 when the Eagles played in L.A., rumbling for 255 yards.
Eagles cornerback Darius Slay was on the field that day, too. He was a rookie with the Lions and remembers McCoy’s game vividly.
“It was slick out there,” said Slay. “It was hard to tackle him that day.”
Slay recalled that McCoy had a slow first half before turning it on in the second half. McCoy had just 51 yards on 13 carries in the first two quarters.
“We shut him down the first half. We were kind of excited. The next thing you know, we realized that they could not throw the ball – neither one of us can – because the weather was so bad, they just started handing him the ball and he got crazy work.”
The Eagles practiced in light snow on Thursday while it was in the 60s with sunshine in L.A. where the Rams are preparing. Slay doesn’t think that is much of an advantage.
“We’re professionals, so it’s not too much of an advantage,” he said. “Shoot, I played with Staff (Stafford), so we were in Detroit, outside, all of the time. And that (bleep) was cold, too. So, it’s not an advantage. It was the elements, so you just gotta go out there and go hard. I don’t believe in that weather advantage – not too much.”
