The Houston Texans offense may have more than the Baltimore Ravens to contend with on Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium.
Weather forecasts have the Texans kicking off the 2023 season under mostly cloudy skies with 82 degrees and six mile-per-hour winds at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time. However, that is sandwiched between scattered thunderstorms throughout the late morning and once more in the late afternoon.
Buy Texans TicketsOffensive coordinator Bobby Slowik’s new scheme may be deployed amid rain and a slick grass turf.
“I think you always look at the weather forecast before you even start the process,” Slowik told reporters Thursday. “It changes. Sometimes it’s supposed to be clear skies, sunny. Friday, all of a sudden, there’s going to be thunderstorms and you have to adjust.”
Like with most surprises in the NFL, the key is preparedness.
“If you can get ahead of it and you know there’s a potential for rain, it does play a little bit of a factor, especially as the week goes on and you have a chance to talk through with the players — maybe specific routes they won’t run, the quarterback — what he feels good throwing — the run game. I mean, [rain] even impacts footing in the run game and kind of your run concepts, so it’s always something you file away.”
Overthinking can summon a bad decision just as making a call without enough information. The key for Slowik will be how the weather forecast looks on game day from the site of the start of the C.J. Stroud era.
“You never want to overdo it because the weather is unpredictable and it can change, but it’s something you have to prepare for, and then particularly day of, that’s really when you go through and hammer out on your game plan what calls you want, what calls — maybe not so much,” said Slowik.
