Dolphins Left Out in the Cold
Talk about ending the season with a thud. Make that a freezing thud.
Playing in the coldest game in franchise history, the Miami Dolphins saw their once-promising season came to a bitter end when they dropped a 26-7 decision against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium.
While the injury-ravaged defense had its issues with Patrick Mahomes, which wasn't overly shocking, the offense continued its late-season swoon of coming up woefully short against quality opponents.
After scoring only 19 points in Week 17 against the Baltimore Ravens in a game that decided the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs and following that with 14 points against the Buffalo Bills in the Week 18 showdown for the AFC East title, the offense was even less effective on this cold night.
All the Dolphins could muster was a 53-yard touchdown pass from Tua Tagovailoa to Tyreek Hill, making his return to Kansas City, in the second quarter.
And this was a Miami offense that had its full complement of playmakers with both Raheem Mostert and Jaylen Waddle returning after missing games because of injuries.
The Dolphins failed to convert a third down until the fourth quarter, by which time the score was 26-7.
The Dolphins also failed to convert a fourth down situation in the first half.
The running game couldn't make a difference at all — rookie De'Von Achane, who led the NFL in average per carry — could muster only 9 yards on six carries. As it turned out, it was Tua who had the longest gain of the night, with a 14-yard scramble in the fourth quarter.
Outside of the long pass to Hill, the passing game simply wasn't very effective.
Tua completed 20 of 39 passes for only 199 yards with one touchdown and one interception, for a passer rating of 63.9. He also was sacked twice.
The Dolphins finished 1-for-12 on third down and with only 236 total yards of offense.
The defense gave up over 400 yards, but held the Chiefs to two touchdowns in six trips inside the red zone to keep the Dolphins within range for most of the night.
This was almost excusable considering the defense was missing five opening-day starters — Bradley Chubb, Jaelan Phillips, Jerome Baker, Jevon Holland and Xavien Howard.
A BAD START FOR THE DOLPHINS
As they've done most of the season, the Dolphins won the opening toss and elected to defer, only to watch Kansas City drive for a touchdown and a quick 7-0 lead.
The Dolphins then played the entire game from behind.
The scoring play was an 11-yard pass from Mahomes to rookie Rashee Rice, who finished with 130 yards.
Mahomes ended up going 23-for-41 for 262 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions.
Kansas City's second score, a field goal that made it 10-0, came after Tua overshot Waddle over the middle and safety Mike Edwards came up with interception.
After the Dolphins got their only touchdown of the game, Kansas City added two field goals to go into halftime with a 16-7 lead.
After the Miami offense went three-and-out at the start of the second half, Kansas City marched for yet another field goal to make it 19-7 and followed that with their second touchdown drive that ended with a 3-yard run by Isiah Pacheco.
The Dolphins offense got into Kansas City territory twice in the fourth quarter after that, but the drives ended with no points, and the offense that set the NFL on fire early in the season never could find that spark at the end of the season.
At the end, the Dolphins stumbled and limped into the playoffs and couldn't find their game when it counted.
