By Kevin Kelly
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Of the many weather elements that affect football games, wind is the only one that picks sides.

"That's part of what makes our sport so interesting," Bengals placekicker Shayne Graham said. "The wind can be such a big variable."

Such was the case when the Bengals and Bills played Sunday in Buffalo.

WEB EXCLUSIVE

•   Bengals Q&A with Mark Curnutte

The most effective defender on the field at Ralph Wilson Stadium, a venue considered one of the NFL's windiest, was MPH.

"There's no question (wind) can affect the game a great deal and drive players nuts," said Dr. William J. Rae, a professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

"If the winds are blowing the wrong way off that 200-mile body of water between here and Detroit, we either get a snowstorm or a bad game."

Only three of the 38 points scored in the Bills' win Sunday came when a team faced the 15- to 22-mph wind.

Rian Lindell's 29-yard field goal against the wind with 31 seconds remaining sent the game into overtime.

"Wind can do weird things," Bengals quarterback Jon Kitna said. "You try not to even think about it, but it's certainly a factor.

"I wasn't going to drop back and try to throw a 40-yard bomb into the wind."

Had he done so, Rae and University of Nebraska professor Dr. Timothy Gay probably would have watched with interest.

In the summers of 2000 and 2001, Rae performed wind tunnel tests on a modified NFL football. The goal was to determine how a ball reacts based on its velocity and spin.

"A football flies like a stone," Rae said. "It's not a very good airplane. ... It can't even hold itself up. That, plus the fact you have no way of controlling it. You can only pray a wind gust doesn't affect it."

Gay, a physics professor at Nebraska, is preparing a book for release next year titled The Physics of Football.

"Wind can have an effect that is huge," he said, "especially if you're kicking a field goal."

Gay can calculate estimated distances of passes released at a 45-degree angle and traveling 68 mph.

At that angle and improbable velocity, a pass in calm conditions would travel 91 yards. A pass thrown with or against a 10-mph wind, however, can affect distance by as much as 3 yards.

Kitna and Graham work without such numbers.

"There are times when ... you'll let a ball go into the wind and it will be (going up) and then will just go straight to the ground," Kitna said.

"When you're throwing with the wind, sometimes it doesn't allow the ball to turn over. That's where you see the nose of the ball continue to fly (upward) and it's just carrying."

Both scenarios materialized Sunday.

A throw to wide receiver Chad Johnson in the second quarter flew 4 yards out of bounds when Kitna aimed well inside the sideline. Another pass, the Bengals' last offensive play of overtime, fell short of receiver Kelley Washington.

The trick to playing successfully does involve having a basic knowledge of physics and meteorology.

"But no matter what you do in the game, your confidence is your best friend," Graham said.

"Without that, you're scared, and you can't afford to be scared. You've got to be able to know that you've prepared well enough to make it through that situation and be successful."

Hold on to your hat

The Bengals and Buffalo Bills played Sunday's game in a 15- to 22-mph wind. Based on weather reports at kickoff, Buffalo's Ralph Wilson Stadium is one of the NFL's windiest stadiums on average through Week 5.

Team	Avg. mph/high mph (Week)	Home Rec.
Houston	15/15 (Week 4)	1-1*
Buffalo	14/15 (Weeks 1 and 5)	2-1
Oakland	14/14 (Week 4)	2-0
Cleveland	13/16 (Week 4)	0-2
San Fran.	13/16 (Week 1)	2-1
Miami	11/16 (Week 3)	1-1
Phila.	11/12 (Week 5)	1-2

*Sept. 21 game against Kansas City at Reliant Stadium played with roof closed. Sept. 28 game against Jacksonville played with roof open.

Return to Bengals front page...