The Dolphins’ Thanksgiving game gives team chance to conquer two foes: the Packers and the cold
The narrative is well-known.
“The Miami Dolphins cannot win in the cold.”
It’s something that has been repeated ad naseum. By media pundits. By fans. By even opposing fans. If the Dolphins come up in conversation ahead of their prime time Thanksgiving matchup against the Green Bay Packers, you better believe that the team’s inability to historically play in cold weather will be mentioned.
Within the organization, however, everyone — from coach Mike McDaniel to Tua Tagovailoa — has seemingly embraced the narrative.
“We couldn’t be asking for anything better,” Jonnu Smith said after Sunday’s 34-15 victory over the New England Patriots. “Honestly, at this point in the season, where we’re at, it’s exactly what we want, this where we want to be. We’re excited about the challenge. Great team that we’re going to go face on a short week
Added Tagovailoa: “I’m excited to kill narratives, so let’s go. Bring it on.”
Like most narratives, the Dolphins’ failure to beat teams in the cold is not without merit. Under coach Mike McDaniel, the Dolphins are just 3-7 when forced to play in cities with frigid temperatures once the month of November hits. Tagovailoa’s record in similar situations isn’t much better at 4-9. Similar to how the Dolphins have constantly reminded fans in search of 2023’s offensive success, the past doesn’t necessarily matter.
“I’m very comfortable with narratives because I think they’re very predictable and retroactive, so what else would you expect — they will always say you can’t until you can,” McDaniel said. “It doesn’t really make me feel anything.”
In turn, McDaniel’s message has been simple: “focus on what you can control.”
“We’re not going to mysteriously change latitudes in the next week,” McDaniel said Monday afternoon, later adding that “the saving grace is that both teams are playing in the same weather and we’ll do little things during the week that we think might be advantageous, but it’s not going to be able to be exact replication. We’re not trying to. I think you just try to be on top of your job and how to do your job and then with your mindset adjusted, that’s how you go into games in any environment, but specifically when you have some elements involved.”
What exactly the team has done in preparation for Thursday is unclear. McDaniel wouldn’t divulge any specifics — “I was just going to carry ice cubes in my pockets and throw them at players all week,” he quipped — but he certainly emphasized the growth of the team from 2022 until now.
“There’s a lot more known in this, going into this game from a weather standpoint just because I think the road game in 2022 at Buffalo — half the team had never played in cold before and it was my first time in any sort of elements with those guys,” McDaniel said before referring to the 2023 wild card playoff loss to the Kansas City Chiefs where temperatures minus-4 degrees. “At this point, a little more familiar. We were given the gift of ‘what do you mean by cold’ — is it frostbite cold? I think that’s as we work together as a collective group, we gained some of that experience in that playoff game and proper perspective.”
As McDaniel alluded to, the right mental state can help soften the effects of the very real environmental pressures. Tagovialoa spoke to that on Tuesday afternoon.
“The biggest thing is mind-set,” Tagovailoa said. “We’re obviously nowhere near the temperatures that the other cold teams play at. Being in Miami, where its 80, sometimes it gets down to 50. It just gets nowhere near the teams that make it in long stretches in the run that they try to do. To me, it’s just mindset.”
Therein lies the key ultimate key to victory. If the Dolphins approach Thursday with the right mind-set, the cold shouldn’t be an issue.
Besides, there’s bigger things at stake. Not only would a win put the Dolphins at .500 for the first time since Week 2, it’s crucial to their postseason aspirations — the Dolphins can only afford to lose one game for the rest season — and their confidence. A three-game win streak against middling teams means virtually nothing if you can’t beat a franchise with Super Bowl dreams.
And while the weather will certainly be a factor, it shouldn’t be the end all be all. Just ask defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver .
“I’ve been around big-time football now since 1998,” said Weaver who played seven years in the NFL before switching to coaching. “I’ve never lost a game and looked back and thought, ‘Guys, it was just too cold outside,’ so I don’t expect that to happen this week. I understand some of the things that are being talked about and the narratives out there, but for us, it’s football. It doesn’t matter what the temperature is, they can go and snap this in the mall parking lot and we’re going to go and do everything we can to try to win.”
This story was originally published November 26, 2024 at 5:56 PM.
