The Eagles took a big step last week toward securing home-field advantage for at least one playoff game. Their problem is that quarterback Michael Vick has played very poorly in subfreezing weather.
Mr. Vick has four combined regular-season and playoff starts in the type of cold he could find next month at home. His passer rating in those cold games is 51.4, or 36% worse than his rating in all other games. Two of the games were in Philadelphia, both losses.
Since 2006, the overall league passer rating in freezing weather (76.7) is 7.6% worse than in other games. But Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers are even more dangerous when playing in extreme cold, sporting 97.2 and 101.5 ratings, respectively. Mr. Rodgers's counterpart in Green Bay this week, the Giants' Eli Manning, has struggled in the cold except for his respectable 72 rating at Green Bay in the '08 NFC Championship. Even including that frigid game, Mr. Manning has never thrown a TD pass in freezing weather.
Meanwhile, in Kansas City on Sunday, Matt Cassel will try to prove his league-leading 105 rating in extreme cold (three starts) is no fluke.
Baby, It's Cold Outside
Here's how some quarterbacks that are still alive for the playoffs have done in passer rating in subfreezing starts, with their number of cold starts in parentheses.
QUARTERBACK REGULAR-SEASON COLD RATING PLAYOFF COLD RATING
Matt Cassel 105 (3) N/A
Aaron Rodgers 101.5 (8) N/A
Ben Roethlisberger 97.2 (11) 83.6 (5)
Tom Brady 94.2 (14) 78.9 (8)
Drew Brees 87.5 (4) 83.2 (1)
Peyton Manning 80.2 (6) 51.5 (2)
Matt Ryan 69.7 (1) N/A
Matt Hasselbeck 53.3 (7) 73.2 (3)
Mark Sanchez 53.0 (4) 139.4 (1)
Eli Manning 43.3 (2) 58.8 (2)
Michael Vick 25.8 (1) 60.8 (3)
Sources: Pro-Football Reference, Stats Inc.
WSJ.com wrote: