Super Bowl 2014: Key Storylines and Predictions for Seahawks vs. Broncos
By Gary Davenport, Featured Columnist @ Bleachers Report, 25 Jan, 2014
Photo: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
After 65 preseason games, 256 regular season contests and 10 more postseason affairs, one more game remains in the 2013-14 NFL season.
On February 2, the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos will meet at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey for Super Bowl XLVIII.
It's a game brimming with storylines. Peyton Manning's assault on the record books, Richard Sherman's assault on America's sensibilities and Mother Nature's assault on everything.
With that in mind here's a look at some of those "Super Stories", as well as predictions as to how those stories might play out......
Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
It's been a hot topic ever since MetLife Stadium was announced as the venue for Super Bowl XLVIII.
Well, sort of.
As the first Super Bowl played outdoors in a cold-weather city, the weather has loomed over this game like—well—like storm clouds gathering.
It looks like fans are going to be chilly. As Will Brinson of CBS Sports reports, the weather.com forecast for February 2 presently calls for game time temperatures in the mid-20s.
That would shatter the record for the coldest outdoor Super Bowl ever. The record is 39 degrees, set all the way back in 1972 at Super Bowl VI in Louisiana.
However, Brinson also points out that the chance of precipitation is only 20 percent, meaning the league would probably dodge the sort of major snowfall that would give NFL commissioner Roger Goodell a panic attack.
With that said, New Jersey state climatologist David Robinson didn't sound nearly as confident while speaking with John O'Boyle of The Newark Star-Ledger:
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Right now we’re getting to the kind of time when you can start looking at the level of activity. Does it look like a tranquil period or does it look like there are some flies in the ointment? And right now, there are some flies in the ointment.
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Robinson also pointed out that weather patterns could shift around the 2nd, which puts nearly all the cards on the table where Mother Nature is concerned on game day:
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This could really become a confounding forecast. These (patterns) don’t last forever. There’s some suggestion that the ridge (of high pressure) out west could begin to retrograde westward, which in turn would pull the trough in the east to the west as well. That could potentially set up a storm track up the east coast that could produce a major storm.
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In other words, no one really knows what the weather will be like, other than it's expected to be below freezing at kickoff.
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