Miami Dolphins season dies miserably in arctic cold of Kansas City in 26-7 playoff loss | Opinion
Andy Reid’s mustache had icicles before the first half ended. A plastic water bottle held Saturday night in Kansas City froze solid before your eyes in seconds. It was dangerously frigid weather fit for woolly mammoths, which are extinct.
This is where the Miami Dolphins season went to die.
The Chiefs dominated and beat the Dolphins in the NFL’s Wild Card playoff round, 26-7, eliminating Miami from the Super Bowl tournament and finishing ugly a once-promising season that withered badly at the end.
“There were high expectations,” said Tyreek Hill, Miami’s lone touchdown scorer. “Definitely wasn’t expecting a first-round exit.”
Said coach Mike McDaniel: “We had goals that weren’t accomplished tonight. We came here to win. It didn’t happen. We fell short. It’s emotional it’s gut-wrenching. We were 100 percent fearlessly all in that we would win.”
As notable as the final score were the meteorological numbers: Minus-4 degrees with a minus-27 wind chill factor at kickoff, making it the fourth-coldest game in NFL history.
A sign held in the Arrowhead Stadium crowd read, ‘Dolphins don’t belong in the snow.’
True, that, though not quite accurate. The sky was clear; no snow. But an ice sheen covered the hard field, the football stung hands and white clouds emitted from facemasks with every breath taken .
It was the Dolphins’ coldest game in 58 franchise seasons.
A Dolfan amid the red-clad crowd held a sign that read, ‘I Wish It Were Colder.’
(Liar!)
For those wondering, the temperature at kickoff outside empty Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens was a wintry (for us) 67 degrees Saturday. The stadium should have been full, except Miami’s home loss to Buffalo last week blew the AFC East, the conference’s No. 2 playoff seed and a home playoff game.
Saturday night resulted, in climes not fit for man, woman, polar bears or Alaskan sled dogs.
It was the penalty — the punishment — for last week, and the week before.
Now Miami is 0-11 all time when playing in temperatures 40 or below.
And 0-6 in the postseason since winning its last playoff game on December 30, 2000, an embarrassing success drought now heading into its 24th year.
“I’ve been saying a quarter century just because it’s more impactful. But ‘I’ve been saying’ means that I’ve been saying it a lot, which means it means a lot,” McDaniel had said, of finally ending the drought. “It was one of the first things I talked about my first day on the job. You have to understand what it will feel like to bring people that joy of rooting for a team for that long and then to not be able to experience at least one postseason win. That’s rough. That is rough. Myself and the whole organization want to deliver on ending that [drought] and doing right by all those years of passion. That’s a huge pot of gold.”
Maybe next year?
This was the first ever NFL playoff game televised behind a streaming-service paywall, on Peacock. It meant far fewer fans nationally were watching than if it were a typical network game.
Just as well for the Dolphins.
This was supposed to be different. This team, this time.
The Dolphins had all the preseason hype and sailed most of the season seemingly toward a division title. It was the highest-scoring team in the league most of the season. Tua Tagovailoa led everybody in passing yards. Tyreek Hill flirted with an historic 2,000-yard season. Raheem Mostert set club records with 21 touchdowns.
“I feel like we have a team that has fought and gotten knocked down and stood up,” McDaniel had said before this game. “We’re a closer team that has weathered life’s lessons and are still coming to work with a lot of gusto to go do something special.”
Yes, this was going to be different. This team, this time. The playoff victory drought was sure to end.
Right?
A third loss in a row Saturday and fourth in six games to end the season said otherwise.
Can this Dolphins season still be called a success? Not by my eye. Not when expectations were so high, and a late collapse of three consecutive defeats closed it out.
When teams with championship mettle are playing their best in lockstep with the crescendo of the season and the onset of the playoffs, the Dolphins were beset by injuries and a shell of the team we saw most of the season.
Kansas City is the reigning Super Bowl champion but hadn’t had a typically dominant season this time. There was hope. Miami was but a 4 1/2-point underdog despite the locale and weather.
But the Chiefs led fast, 7-0, on Patrick Mahomes’ 11-yard scoring pass to rookie Rashee Rice, whom the Dolphins pass defense made seem like Jerry Rice incarnate.
Then here came Miami’s night in microcosm: Third-and-inches, Fins run for a first down, but an illegal formation penalty makes it third-and-6. Tagovailoa gets intercepted. Results in a short field goal and 10-0 Chiefs lead.
Tagovailoa-to-Hill on a 53-yard scoring pass drew Miami within 10-7 and that was about it for the visitors’ highlights.
The ravaged Dolphins defense, missing five starters to injuries, toughened in the red zone and kept holding K.C. to field goals. But there were three more of those and it was 19-7 entering the fourth quarter.
Then it was 26-7, all hope gone, and still the Dolphins’ formerly mighty offense saw its frustrations continue. Miami was 1 for 12 on third down conversions.
“Seven points isn’t good enough,” McDaniel said.
Penalties and communication errors (a continuing problem) plagued Miami.
“Communication errors ... can’t do that,” said Tagovailoa afterward.
Hill’s house caught on fire last week (nobody was hurt), and he saw a metaphor linking that to Miami’s recent struggles heading into an arctic-weather game.
“It’s just a transition for us; that’s what players do. We find a way to bounce back,” he said. “That’s what life is, ups and downs. You have things happen and you have to find a way to adjust to adversity. So we just had a slight adversity and we’re going to find a way to face it. And that’s what we’re doing now.”
Hill and several other Dolphins played in short sleeves.
That bravado was there. It was other stuff missing. Like a healthy defense. And the offensive mojo we saw the first half of the season.
“There’s been a lot of ups and downs with the injuries,” Tagovailoa said. “We’re not going to use that as an excuse.”
Now comes an offseason — here too soon — that presents big questions for Miami starting with whether to offer Tagovailoa the windfall contract extension he is due. They should. He made the Pro Bowl and proved himself, even if the ending was one of anticlimax and disappointment. Christian Wilkins also deserves a major contract extension.
Tagovailoa said he is not dwelling on contact matters at the moment.
“I don’t feel any pressure at all,” he said. “I have full trust in myself and my ability to lead this organization. We’re going to simmer on this and hopefully get better from it.”
A final season record of 11 wins and 7 losses is not one to warrant panic moving forward.
But was this season a success?
No. By its own expectations, no.
Not when three straight losses and four in six games down the stretch ends it.
This is a team we all thought had a chance to play a couple of more weeks., to make a run at the AFC Championship Game, at least.
Instead the season unraveled.
Instead, what was the hottest offense in the NFL most of the year ended like the weather in Kansas City on Saturday night.
Ice cold.
This story was originally published January 13, 2024 at 11:19 PM.
