Did pregame hibernation doom Cowboys?

Associated Press

When ESPN sideline reporter Lisa Salters told us how much extra clothing the Dallas Cowboys had packed for Monday night’s bitter cold contest in Chicago, you knew the ‘Boys may have been thinking a little too much about the -9 wind chills they were facing at Soldier Field.

Brandon Marshall agrees. The Bears wide receiver told Chicago’s ESPN 1000 Tuesday he knew his team had the contest won when he saw only a few Dallas players on the field preparing before the game.

“There was only a handful of Dallas players,” Marshall said. “I looked around and I said, ‘Man, we’ve got these guys.’”

The temperature at kickoff Monday was 7 degrees Fahrenheit in Chicago, but it felt like -9 with the wind.

“The elements were already in their heads,” Marshall continued in his radio interview. “So pregame, I believe that we won. I’m pretty sure there [would have been] more guys out there if it wasn’t colder, but they weren’t out there. For us, once you start putting on sleeves and start doing things differently, you buy into the elements and the game is over.”

The Cowboys came out of the locker room hot, running all over the Bears defense for a quick score and a 7-0 lead. Dallas kept the game close for a while, but the Bears eventually ran off to 45-28 win.

-- cold --

Bears freeze out Cowboys

Photo: Chicago Tribune

I hate to walk outside on a frigid day and hear someone ask, "Is it cold enough for ya?"

I just want to punch them right in the neck. Who asks stupid questions like that?

On Monday night in Chicago, I'm sure it was cold enough for everyone at Soldier Field where temperatures fell to 7 degrees Fahrenheit. With the wind, it felt like minus 7 as the hometown Bears whipped the Dallas Cowboys 45-28.

Next Monday, players, coaches and fans will be much warmer inside the cozy confines of Ford Field when the enigmatic Lions host the Baltimore Ravens. After both teams played in snow on Sunday, I'm sure they'll be happy to take their games inside the climate controlled dome.

I'll be at the same place I am most Monday night's, sitting in the man cave basking in TV's warm glowing warming glow.

Good night, Homer.

-- cold --

Sunday, snowy Sunday

Jeffrey G. Pittenger/USA TODAY Sports, via Reuters

If Sunday's NFL action didn't thrill you, you must have ice water in your veins.

As I told my wife, Sunday's games, particularly the early contests, were the most exciting I've seen on one Sunday in a while. There were high-scoring games, close games, a near upset in New England and constant lead changes late in the fourth quarter of the Baltimore/Minnesota game.

The one key element to all this excitement, in most cases, was the weather. We had snow in near D.C., Baltimore, Green Bay and Pittsburgh, but the blizzard-like conditions in Philly provided the most visually appealing matchup of the day.

I'll write more on this later – real-world stuff is getting in the way of important Rainout Blog stuff today – but for now I'll link you to a pretty cool snow-game gallery on NFL.com.

Oh, and don't forget temperatures will be down to 11 degrees Fahrenheit tonight in Chicago where da Bears host the Cowboys. By the way, what's Tony Romo's record like in December?

-- snow --

Speechless in the Rain

Hey, I got a lot of real-world crap to do today, so I'll be brief. 

I know this is a sports weather blog, but you may want to know that President Barack Obama's primetime speech at the Democratic National Convention Thursday night has been moved indoors to the Time Warner Center in Charlotte. 

Obama campaign officials had been saying for weeks the speech would take place outdoors "rain or shine," but a strong threat of thunderstorms forced the move. (And, perhaps a lack of confidence by campaign officials to fill the 75,000-seat Bank of America Stadium.) 

Here's where'd I'd like to throw in a joke about the cluelessness of Mitt Romney, but I just can't make it fit. This is a not-quite-ready-for-primetime-blog, ya know.

Ok, moving forward to the sports stuff. It's been raining like hell at the U.S. Open in New York, and it appears the weather will be a menace again today. Only two  matches reached completion Tuesday. One being Victoria Azarenka's three-set win over Sam Stosur under glooming skies. I love Azarenak, but I really wish she stop with the post-match dances, unless she's dancing in a downpour. I'll make that exception.

Maria Sharapova, speaking of someone I'd like to see dancing in the rain, and Marion Bartoli pick up their suspended match today at 11 a.m.

Oh, and you may have heard, Andy Roddick will try to stave off career elimination tonight. His match was rained out Tuesday night. It's sort of a big deal to a bunch of tennis pundits. I love tennis, but I've never been a Roddick fan. 

I keep hearing how great he is, but it seems every time I look at tournaments results, Roddick has lost in the second round. The excuse I keep hearing is he played in a tough era. Big deal. If he really were great, the era wouldn't matter. To be truly great, you have to get the job done no matter the competition.

Wow, I really went off on a tangent there.

Didn't I say I was going to be brief? Oh, well.

One more thing: The NFL season kicks off tonight, and there's a strong chance of rain and thunderstorms for the Cowboys-Giants matchup at MetLife Stadium. Awesome!

I know I said more thing, but I got another "one more thing." Ok? Did you hear there was a rain delay in Toronto for the Blue Jays-Orioles game Tuesday night? That's right. A brief, unofficial rain delay at the indoor Rogers Centre. Apparently the retractable roof was moving a bit slowly… like Robinson Cano moving toward a ground ball.

Ok, that's it. Good night, everybody. I wish the real world would just stop hassling me. We're have I heard that before?

Another Gallery Visit

Most everyone likes to watch football games played in ankle-deep snow and see the occasional tarp-whipping wind blow through a ballpark. That's one reason I started this sports weather blog. Bad weather sporting events often provide us with some uber cool images. I've mentioned a couple of times the NFL.com photo feature of bad weather football games. This week SI.com is featuring its own NFL bad weather photo gallery. SI's 12-photo gallery begins with the 1967 Ice Bowl between the Packers and Cowboys, mixes in a few other historical snowy and muddy pics and concludes with this season's snow games in Cleveland and most recent playoff contest in Green Bay. The gallery is worth clicking through as it contains a handful of shots that you normally don't see associated with these games. For example, the Ice Bowl photo is not the usual pic of Bart Starr diving for the game-winning touchdown.

T.O., Cowboys and Popcorn Sales Plummet

For all of you disappointed Cowboys fans out there who also are die-hard football fans, look at things this way: At least now you and the rest of us will have an opportunity to enjoy another cold, wintry game at Lambeau Field. Saturday's Pack win over the Seahawks provided some great images, like the one here. We hope Sunday's NFC title game will do the same. Of course the game is still a week away, but early forecasts are calling for a high of 11 degrees, a low of 8 and a 40 percent chance of precipitation when the Packers and Giants kickoff at 5:30 Green Bay time. I can't wait. Get your popcorn ready!

Rip the Roof Off This Place

Is it Monday yet? Yes, it is and tonight the Chicago Bears visit Minneapolis to play their NFC North division rival Minnesota Vikings. Temperatures will dip down to about 17 degrees tonight and there still is left over snow on the ground, as evidenced by this Web cam showing the progress of the Twins new ballpark.

I know that you know that I know that you know the Vikings play in the controlled comforts of the Metrodome, where no weather element is allowed to introduce itself to Vikings football. Once upon a time, however, the gridiron Norsemen played their games outside at Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minnesota.

My pal Chad in the J.C. alerted me today about this brief YouTube video (below) of CBS's opening for the 1975 NFC Championship game between the Vikings and Dallas Cowboys. You clearly can see snow piled all around the playing field at Metropolitan Stadium. Look how young Brent Musburger looks. And look at Phyllis George. Wowza! One more thing: Drew Pearson did not push off. Well, that's what Chad tells me.

By the way, as you're looking at the Twins ballpark construction cam, you can see a portion of the Metrodome at the bottom left corner. Joe Namath and his freshly-earned college degree are sitting here with me. We're watching the Web cam for Suzie Kolber to walk by the dome. Man, I'd like to kiss her.

Battle For Weather Extremes

Tonight's the big game that could decide which team, Packers or Cowboys, gets home field advantage in the NFC Championship come Jan. 20. Much of the talk this week has been centered on, not the action on the field, but the number of American households that do not receive the NFL Network, thus leaving millions of fanatical football folks without a chance watch on their TV sets. But that's an issue for other blogs. Here, the focus is on weather. Not tonight's weather in Irving, where temps will be around 48 degrees with partly cloudy skies, but the projected weather for that late January NFC title game.

Today's Dallas Morning News provides a chart listing the record highs and record lows for both Green Bay and Irving for Jan. 20. Looking at the extremes we find that the record high for Irving is 83 degrees, set back in 1972. Ok, fine. Now the good stuff. The record low for Green Bay was a brain-numbing -25 degrees in 1985. I'm no math major, but it doesn’t take a rocket surgeon to realize that a total of 108 degrees in temperate could be on the line tonight at Texas Stadium. Quick, call your cable provider and tell them you have to have the NFL Network. And tell them Jerry Jones sent you.

Ralphie Warned Us About This

Everyone here knows about the Ice Bowl, so there's no reason to revisit the details. However, there is one bit of information about that 1967 NFL Championship game that I either did not know about or had just tucked into the far reaches of my brain. In other words: I forgot.

Anyway, I just learned a couple of nights ago about how the officials for the game did not use their whistles after the game's initial play. The reason being that official Joe Connell had his whistle freeze to his lips because of the freezing temperatures.

I heard about this while watching the NFL Network's Top 10 Bad Weather Games late Saturday night. One account of the event I read today quoted referee Norm Schachter saying about Connell, that "about half his lip came off" when he tried to remove the whistle. And then the blood froze on his mouth. Yuck! From that point, the refs kept their whistles far from their lips and simply shouted "hold up" or "he's down" to signify the end of plays.

While researching this nugget of Ice Bowl info, I found a few more things on the Packers Web site that you may or may not have known about the game.

- Bart Starr's touchdown play, "35 wedge," called for Chuck Mercein to get the ball. No one expected Starr to keep it.

- Officially, the field's $80,000 heating system failed due to cold. Unofficially, some say, Lombardi turned it off.

- The play before Starr's TD, Donny Anderson actually broke the plane, but Lee Roy Jordan knocked the ball from his hands, and Anderson had to retrieve it on the other side.

- The team canceled marching band performances after noticing blood on a few of the musician's faces.

- Packers fans several times during the contest leaned over the front row to unplug the Cowboys' heated benches.

- After the game, several fans passed out soon after warming up. Their thawed systems finally registered the alcohol they'd consumed to keep warm during the game.

- One fan, an elderly gentleman, died due to exposure.

Ice Bowl As You've Never Seen It

Those of us who dig our sporting events mixed with a dash or two of bad weather hold with high regard the 1967 NFL Championship game between the Packers and Cowboys, or the Ice Bowl as it's commonly known. You know the story of that contest, so I won't go into details. Anyway, I was Googling pics of bad weather football games today, and stumbled upon this unique, uh, photo (above) of the Ice Bowl I had never seen before. And, I'm betting you've never seen it either. It was made by a filmmaker who operates the very cool Web site, Stopactionfootball.com, which features those beloved electronic football players from our childhood. You really should take a few minutes and examine his work. It is great, and particularly check out his film about Jim Marshall's wrong-way run. It's a classic and perfect irony for the electronic football environment. But if you're in a hurry to get back to work and have only a few minutes to kill, below is a film from the site highlighting the most recent Super Bowl. Yeah, it's weather related. Remember the rain?

Weather Games Encore

The NFL Network will show an encore presentation of the Top 10 Weather games at 4 p.m. Wednesday. The show originally aired weeks ago, but I never got a chance to see it. Given that the show will be on in the afternoon on July 4th, I’m pretty sure I’ll miss it again. Hey, there are a lot of hot dogs and hamburgers out there with my name on them. No time to watch TV.