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FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS – SEPTEMBER 20: Hunter Henry #85 of the New England Patriots runs down the field against the Pittsburgh Steelers during the first quarter of the game at Gillette Stadium on September 20, 2026 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The New England Patriots<\/a> can leave the rain gear at home Sunday.<\/p>\n Getting comfortable in the Florida heat<\/a> may be the bigger challenge.<\/p>\n New England heads to Jacksonville for a 1 p.m. ET matchup<\/a> with the Jaguars on Sept. 27, and the forecast is setting up for a quintessential early-season road test in Florida: sunshine, temperatures climbing through the 80s and virtually no threat of rain.<\/p>\n It will be a significant change of scenery for a Patriots team that has spent September practicing and playing in New England.<\/p>\n And unlike rain or wind, which can reshape a game plan before kickoff, heat has a way of becoming more important the longer a game lasts.<\/p>\n Patriots-Jaguars Forecast Calls for Plenty of Sunshine and Heat<\/p>\n There isn\u2019t much mystery surrounding Sunday\u2019s forecast.<\/p>\n Conditions in Jacksonville are expected to be mostly sunny around the 1 p.m. kickoff, with temperatures around 80 degrees before continuing to climb during the afternoon. The forecast calls for a high in the mid-80s, with little wind and essentially no rain threat during the game window.<\/p>\n In other words, weather shouldn\u2019t interfere with the football.<\/p>\n The temperature, however, could test New England.<\/p>\n Playing four quarters in the Florida sun is a different proposition than simply seeing \u201c85 degrees\u201d on a forecast. The Patriots will have to manage hydration, substitutions and fatigue, particularly as the afternoon wears on.<\/p>\n Jacksonville, of course, lives in those conditions. New England doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n That doesn\u2019t make the weather an excuse or necessarily give the Jaguars<\/a> some enormous advantage. It does make acclimation another piece of the road-game equation for Mike Vrabel and his team.<\/p>\n Florida Heat Adds Another Layer to Patriots\u2019 Road Test<\/p>\n The timing is what makes Sunday\u2019s forecast noteworthy.<\/p>\n A 1 p.m. kickoff puts the Patriots on the field during one of the hottest stretches of the afternoon, and the temperature is expected to rise after the opening kick rather than fall.<\/p>\n By 2 p.m., the forecast has Jacksonville around 84 degrees. It could reach approximately 85 to 87 degrees later in the afternoon.<\/p>\n There is also little wind expected to provide much relief, with speeds remaining relatively light throughout the game.<\/p>\n None of that should fundamentally alter what the Patriots want to do against Jacksonville. Maye won\u2019t be throwing through driving rain. Special teams won\u2019t be dealing with powerful gusts. Ball security shouldn\u2019t suddenly become a weather-driven concern.<\/p>\n Instead, this is about endurance.<\/p>\n For New England, that could become particularly important late in the third quarter and into the fourth, when a warm September afternoon has been sitting on players for two-plus hours.<\/p>\n It also adds another variable to a road game the Patriots would love to control from the start. Sustained drives can keep New England\u2019s defense off the field. Getting Jacksonville\u2019s offense off the field quickly can do the same. In conditions like these, those extra snaps can start adding up.<\/p>\n There are certainly worse forecasts for an NFL<\/a> game. Fans traveling to Jacksonville should get sunshine and dry conditions rather than thunderstorms or a washout.<\/p>\n But for the Patriots<\/a> themselves, Sunday\u2019s weather represents something they haven\u2019t dealt with much this season.<\/p>\n New England is going south. And summer isn\u2019t over yet.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMaggie MacKenzie<\/a> Maggie MacKenzie covers NASCAR for Heavy.com. She previously worked for NASCAR.com, where she reported, wrote, and edited race-weekend coverage and traveled to key events throughout the season. She has more than ten years of experience in sports media and is based in Boston, Massachusetts. More about Maggie MacKenzie<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS – SEPTEMBER 20: Hunter Henry #85 of the New England Patriots runs down the field…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-411930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}