Cote: Tua, Miami crush Patriots, 34-15. But Dolphins face cold, hard truth -- starting now | Opinion
Celebrate Sunday’s dominant Miami Dolphins victory over the New England Patriots for a minute, not much longer. The stadium hadn’t even emptied yet when the team’s equipment crew already was assembling the cold-weather gear for the Fins’ short-week trip to Green Bay to play on Thursday night.
Thanksgiving night at Lambeau Field in late November lends a whole new meaning to ‘frozen turkey.’ The weather in the place that gave birth to the phrase Frozen Tundra is forecast to be cloudy and windy with temps in the low 20s Thursday night -- though mercifully with little chance of rain, at least.
The Dolphins’ 34-15 Sunday rout of the division-rival Pats was a third consecutive Miami win that hiked the season record to 5-6. In the NFL -- where only seven AFC teams entered Sunday with a winning record -- that’s close enough to playoff contention to see it without binoculars.
But now comes the hard part. The cold, hard truth on whether Miami can actually climb from 2-6 and written off all the way to the postseason on the back of resurgent quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who is now 7-0 in his career starting vs. the Patriots. And Miami has now won back-to-back season sweeps over New England for the first time since 1999-2000.
The twin narratives dogging the Dolphins is they can;t beat good teams and can;t win in (very) cold weather. At Green Bay Thursday night can underline both narratives or set them aside.
“I’m excited to kill narratives so let’s go!,” said quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. “Bring it on.”
Said coach Mike McDaniel, of that: “Two things will be said. Good teams. And cold weather. There’s one way to correct that and set the narrative straight. I relish that opportunity. The Packers don’t care about our three-game win streak. The Packers are going to try to make sure that we’re the team that can’t beat good teams or win in the cold.”
The Fins’ three straight wins after back-to-back losses on last-second field goals have come in the five games since Tua’s return from a concussion, as he continues to prove that when healthy he is knocking loud on the elite-tier door. Sunday he completed 29 of 40 passes for 317 yards with four touchdowns and zero interceptions.
Tua is now modeling clothes for sponsor Perry Ellis and looking just as sharp on the field. (Wisely, coach Mike McDaniel had backup Skylar Thompson in the game at 31-0, but just as prudently had Tua back in at 31-15.).
Since Tua’s Week 8 return and entering Sunday, the Dolphins offense led the NFL in third-down conversion rate at 60.4 percent, and in average points-per-possession at 3.17. Also since Week 8, Miami had scored 11 touchdowns in 15 trips to the red zone, and was nine-for-10 in goal-to-go situations.
And the latest big showing only enhanced the quantifying of Tua’s impact and ability to lift his team.
A great first half including a second quarter for the ages had Miami large and in charge at the break Sunday, 24-0.
The Dolphins in the second scored all of their 24 points with four consecutive payday drives:
Tua’s 7-yard touchdown pass to Jonnu Smith, his 9- and 11-yard TD strikes to De’Von Achane, and the last goal-to-go of the half settling for a 21-yard field goal.
Tagovailoa was 20-for-27 for 247 yards in that glorious opening half, six of the passes for 118 yards to Jaylen Waddle.
And Miami’s defense was as dominant as the offense.
New England’s first half possessions: Punt, missed field goal, punt, punt, punt, half. The Dolphins limited the Pats to 85 total yards of offense before halftime and had a pair of sacks.
Miami made it 31-0 in the third quarter on Tua’s fourth TD pitch, this one 17 yards to Waddle (who it appears has quietly retired his penguin-like waddle to celebrate reaching the end zone, for those keeping track).
The Pats made it seem close-ish in the fourth on a 38-yard scoring pass and then a 62-yard fumble-return TD and two-point play after a lost ball by Jaylen Wright, before a late Fins field goal closed the scoring.
Climbing to 5-6 has given Miami a chance to reach the playoffs, but the path from here leaves little margin of error -- and Miami must find a way to win in freezing weather to make it happen.
When last the Dolphins played in such frigid conditions -- last January in the playoffs at Kansas City -- things didn’t work out so good to say the least. Miami lost 26-7. It didn’t seem that close. The conditions were so hypothermia-dangerous that dozens of spectators were hospitalized.
Thursday night in Green Bay might not be quite that bad, but it’ll still be an enormous disadvantage for the team from the Sunshine State.
And that won’t be the only time the Fins will have to win in the freezing cold to make the playoffs. The last two regular-season games are on the road in Cleveland and at the New York Jets.
At 5-6, the remaining games Miami simply must win are over the Jets, twice, and the Browns. That gets them to eight wins. The other three remaining games in addition to at Green Bay are at Houston and vs. San Francisco. The Texans have been mortal since a 5-1 start. The 49ers have been a big disappointment this year.
If Miami wins the three games it must but, say, loses in Green Bay, that would mean beating either Houston or San Fran would get the Fins to 9-7 and a likely playoff spot ... where a wild-card playoff game in more cold weather would be a distinct possibility.
But at 5-6, the climb has only just begun.
“Still below .500 there’s a long way for us to go,” said Tagovailoa. “But stacking wins is definitely a morale boost.”
Bottom line: Some have accused the Dolphins of being “soft” along with those other narratives.
Now they’ll have a chance the rest of the way,, starting Thursday night, to prove otherwise. You do that by winning when you have to and by doing it on the road, in winter, when the frozen field under you is every bit as hard as the challenge.
This story was originally published November 24, 2024 at 4:09 PM.
