KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When the Miami Dolphins take the field Saturday night at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, 8,414 days will have passed since the franchise’s last postseason win.
The Dolphins haven’t won a playoff game since Lamar Smith ran for 209 yards and Jay Fiedler overcame three interceptions to rally Dave Wannstedt’s team to a 23-17 overtime win against Peyton Manning’s Colts on Dec. 30, 2000, at what was then called Pro Player Stadium.
For perspective, that’s longer than the 8,028-day drought the Kansas City Chiefs endured between the 1993 AFC Divisional win on Jan. 16, 1994, against the Oilers in Houston and a 2015 AFC Wild Card win on Jan. 9, 2016, against the Texans, also in Houston.
Want more perspective? Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel was a senior at Smoky Hill High School in Aurora, Colorado, the last time the franchise won in the postseason, a span of five consecutive losses.
To end that 23-season drought, Miami will have to do something it seldom does — overcome the cold, which will be brutal even by Kansas City's standards.
Weather Blog | @WesWeather says to expect brutal winter weather with snow, negative temperatures in the coming days >>https://t.co/XCB5KV6MyN
— KSHB 41 News (@KSHB41) January 10, 2024
The Dolphins have lost 10 straight games, all since December 2017, when the kickoff temperature is below 40 degrees, according to CBS Sports.
Those losses include three since Mike McDaniels’ arrival, including last year’s Super Wild Card loss at Buffalo, but the temperature for those recent games was at least 27 degrees — balmy compared with the forecast temperatures and wind chill expected Saturday in Kansas City.
The KSHB 41 Weather Team’s forecast anticipates that it will be 6° with a minus-10° degree wind chill at kickoff and will only get colder during the game.
That would be the coldest game in Dolphins history, eclipsing the 10-degree kickoff temp from the penultimate game of the 2008 season (and Herm Edwards’ tenure with the Chiefs).
High temperatures in Miami this week have been in the 70s, so it’ll be a shock to the system arriving in Kansas City.
But the Chiefs can’t simply count on the Dolphins freezing under the playoff glare again.
“I don’t think you bank on all that,” Kansas City coach Andy Reid said. “That’s where you get into trouble. The guys are pretty resilient, so you get yourself ready. If it works out that way for you, I don’t know how to quantify that. I just say, ‘Get ready for the game. Let’s do that.’ I don’t really care what happens out here (with the weather). We’re not having a snowball fight.”
INJURY UPDATE: Left tackle Wanya Morris remains in the NFL’s Concussion Protocol and is the only player who won’t practice Wednesday ahead of Saturday’s Super Wild Card matchup against Miami at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.
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