Looks like wind could impact yet another Patriots-Bills game

Remember when the New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills met in Week 13 last year and weather conditions had a major impact on their prime time meeting? Well, it looks like this season’s Week 13 matchup between the two AFC East rivals could be similar.

While the forecast for the Thursday night meeting between the 6-5 Patriots and 8-3 Bills does not project the same wind gusts the two teams experienced last December, wind could yet again play a role in the contest.

The National Weather Service, after all, has issued a Wind Advisory for Dec. 1. Even though that Advisory will expire at 5 p.m. ET — i.e. three hours before kickoff — wind could still become a factor, especially in the kicking game.

The following forecast for Wrentham, which lies just west of the Patriots’ Gillette Stadium, illustrates this:

Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 40. West wind 10 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 41 mph.

Thursday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 25. West wind 5 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph.

Especially early on in the game, which will be kicked off at 8:15 p.m. ET, the wind could make life hard for the two teams’ kickers and punters — something the Patriots have experienced already this season: Gillette Stadium, which is currently a construction side in its northern end zone, has had some challenging conditions.

“Each game this season at home has been a different pattern. So, we’ve had to adjust each week,” said Patriots special teams coordinator Cam Achord last month. “We’ve had some really tough conditions to kick in in there, actually, a couple of games.”

The Patriots’ last home game against the New York Jets saw such difficult conditions, with sustained winds between 7 and 15 mph and gusts of up to 30 mph. Those winds inside a tough-to-kick arena caused the usually reliable Nick Folk to miss two field goals.

Of course, those conditions were still relatively friendly compared to last December’s Patriots-Bills game.

That contest, which was won 14-10 by a visiting New England side, experienced sustained wind levels between 22 and 23 mph. As a result, the passing games were also affected: the Patriots ended up calling just three pass plays all day compared to 46 runs.

How are the Patriots preparing for conditions like these, though? According to Cam Achord, it’s all about getting a feel for them on game day.

“We’re trying to get in there as much as we can, we make notes, but you always go back to the game day,” he said. “What are you feeling on game day? And it may be close to something you felt during the week — ‘Hey, it’s close to this, maybe this is what we can do.’ It’s weekly-based and its game-based, but I’d say it’s changed for us.”