Dolphins 2023 Schedule Breakdown: Starting With Two on the Road
As we continue dissecting the Miami Dolphins' 2023 regular season schedule, we examine one of the things that stuck out and that was opening with two consecutive road games.
As a refresher, the Dolphins will open the season against the L.A. Chargers at SoFi Stadium on Sept. 10 at 4:25 p.m. ET and then face the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium in the Week 2 Sunday night game.
It will become the 15th time in franchise history the Dolphins open with consecutive road games, but that stat deserves an asterisk because they were not supposed to open that way in 2017. That all changed, of course, because of Hurricane Irma, which forced the postponement of the scheduled season opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which meant the Dolphins' first two games then were a Week 2 matchup against the Chargers at StubHub Center, following by a Week 3 game against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium.
THE DOLPHINS HISTORY OF STARTING WITH TWO GAMES ON THE ROAD
The last time the Dolphins actually were scheduled to start with two road games was 2016, Adam Gase's first year as Miami head coach. The Dolphins also opened with two on the road in 1969, 1970, 1971, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1987, 1988, 1988, 2010, 2013 and 2015.
The records indicate the Dolphins went 1-1 exactly half of those 14 previous times they opened with two on the road.
The Dolphins went 2-0 three times and went 0-2 also three times, and there also was a 1-0-1 in there.
Ironically, the Dolphins didn't make the playoffs any of the three times they opened 2-0 on the road, though one of those seasons was 1977 when they went 10-4 and the playoff field in each conference consisted of the three division winners and one wild-card team.
The Dolphins had bad records in 1969 and 1988 when they opened with consecutive road losses, but they rebounded to make the playoffs in that 2016
AROUND THE NFL
The Dolphins are one of four teams around the league that will open with two consecutive road games, along with the Green Bay Packers, Las Vegas Raiders and San Francisco 49ers.
By contrast, four teams will open with two home games: the Atlanta Falcons, Denver Broncos, New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers.
For those keeping score at home, seven teams opened with two on the road the past two NFL seasons — Dallas, Denver, Minnesota and San Francisco in 2021, and Indianapolis, New England and Tampa Bay in 2022.
Of those seven teams, three went on to make the playoffs, though the 2022 Buccaneers did so with an 8-9 record.
Three of those seven teams — the 2021 49ers, 2021 Broncos and 2022 Bucs — went 2-0 in those first two road games. Only one team, the 2021 Vikings, went 0-2.
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Alain Poupart has covered the Miami Dolphins on a full-time basis since 1989. You can follow him on Twitter at @PoupartNFL. Feel free to submit questions every week for the All Dolphins mailbag via Twitter or via email at fnalldolphins@yahoo.com.
