100 Percent Chance of Rain!

That's the weather forecast – heavy rain – for Friday night's Pac-12 championship contest between Stanford and UCLA in Palo Alto, Calif.

Whenever rain is forecasted for a football game it always brings the question of which team is better equipped to handle the wet conditions. Ordinarily, we agree the team with the best running attack has the edge in rain, and passing can dominate in the snow.

UCLA coach Jim Mora has this take on the rain factor:

"You could look at it two ways. They're kind of a physical, pound-it, grind-it-out team. On the one hand, you can say that might be an advantage.

"But I've also been in games where a team that spreads it out a little more, gets playmakers in the open field and creates those one-on-one matchups sometimes has the advantage. If you make a guy miss on a slippery field, you've got some ground you can gain."

In the regular season finale Saturday, Stanford handed UCLA a 35-17 defeat.

T.J. Simers is questioning whether clouds that night held back any potential rainfall that may or may not have provided an advantage to one team over the other.

Wet Monday in Pittsburgh?

I posted below about the rainy Sunday night in Chicago, and tonight's Monday nighter in Pittsburgh could get a little sloppy wet, too.

However, the wetness factor may not night rate quite as high as in Soldier Field last night.

The forecast for the Pittsburgh area tonight is calling for a chance of light rain, about 90 percent at kickoff, throughout the game.

The chance the contest between the Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs will be a watchable game is significantly lower.

Chicago Soaker

Photo: Chicago Tribune

If you're a fan of old-school-looking football played on natural grass out in pouring rain – oh, and low scoring – Sunday night's Texans-Bears clash at Soldier Field mostly likely was directly in your wheelhouse.

Today, the Chicago Tribune has an excellent photo gallery highlighting the rain-soaked action.

By the way, Houston scored a 13-6 win over the Bears. Jay Cutler left the game in the first half after suffering a concussion, which no doubt has left the quarterback feeling a bit cloudy today.

Cutler not only missed the second half of the game, is questionable for the Bears' showdown Monday night in San Francisco, but he also was forced to cancel his Monday radio show with "Waddle & Silvy Show" on Chicago's WMVP-AM.