This isn’t the first time the wind has played a factor in a matchup between these two division rivals.

What You Need To Know

  • Gusts reached 50-55 mph at times during Monday Night Football

  • Back in 2008, strong winds damaged the Bills practice fieldhouse before the game

  • Both games ended up with the Bills losing to the Patriots

For players and fans, Monday night didn’t exactly feature ideal weather for a football game. It didn’t stop Bills Mafia from filling up Highmark Stadium for this nationally televised game, but the wind was more of a showstopper compared to Buffalo’s notorious lake-effect snow.

Chautauqua and southern Erie counties, including Orchard Park, were under a High Wind Warning earlier Monday. That got downgraded to a Wind Advisory a couple of hours before kickoff, but that didn't mean the wind was any less of a factor, with gusts reaching 50-55 mph at times.

Josh Allen completed 15 of 30 passes for 145 yards and a touchdown. On the other side, the Patriots quarterback, Mac Jones, didn’t even attempt a pass until the final 90 seconds of the first half because of the wind.

Jones finished the game 2 for 3, the least amount of passes thrown by a winning quarterback over the last 30 seasons.

The kickers also faced the tough task of conquering the wind. The Bills kicker, Tyler Bass, had the shortest miss of his career so far when a 33-yard field goal attempt ended up wide right.

When the wind blew at the kicker’s back, kickoffs sailed through the end zone. On the flip side, New England Patriot and Pro Bowler Jake Bailey saw the wind send his second punt backward, resulting in a gain of just 15 yards.

Ultimately, the better run game decided this one. (Much to the dismay of Bills fans, myself included.)

Off of 19 carries, the Bills ended up with only 60 total yards between 3 players. Meanwhile, New England ran the ball 46 times for 222 yards, including a 64-yard run that resulted in a touchdown.

Past weather fumbles

Belichick and the New England Patriots have also handed the Bills a loss under blustery conditions in the past. Back in 2008, gusts up to 75 mph tore a strip 2-feet wide and more than 50 feet long off the metal roof of the Bills' practice fieldhouse that morning and tilted both goalposts before the game.

Even after crews used ropes and a forklift to re-secure and re-center the goalposts, the posts at the west end had to be adjusted late in the second quarter as the Patriots lined up for a 26-yard field goal attempt. 

Either way, Stephen Gostkowski’s kick ended up wide right. The Bills' Rian Lindell didn’t have better luck on the other end of the stadium with a missed 47-yard attempt.

Unlike this time around, both teams avoided passing as much as possible. Neither team attempted a pass into the wind for the first 25 minutes of the game.

Matt Cassel went 2-for-3 for 31 yards through the Patriots’ first 3 possessions of the game. (Don’t forget, that’s the year Tom Brady tore his ACL at the start of the season.)

On the other side, the Bills opened things up with 14 straight runs into the wind. Then quarterback Trent Edwards only threw one pass, a 13-yarder to Lee Evans.

Oddly enough, 13 is how many points the Patriots scored when they shut out the Bills on that blustery Sunday back on December 28, 2008.

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