KANSAS City, Mo. — The temperature at Arrowhead Stadium was underneath freezing — way underneath freezing at minus-4 degrees Fahrenheit when the Miami Dolphins took the field Saturday night time to encounter the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs.
The chilly and the Dolphins’ individual missteps on the field doomed Miami’s hard work as they misplaced 26-7 during what will go down in background as a person of the coldest NFL video games every played.
The loss by Miami extends their streak to 24 many years of remaining unable to score a gain all through the playoffs.
Kansas Metropolis Chiefs put Dolphins on ice
Patrick Mahomes threw for 262 yards and a landing, had his helmet shattered when he took a strike in the second 50 percent, but nonetheless managed to assist his Chiefs rout the Dolphins in the fourth-coldest sport in NFL historical past.
The reigning league MVP discovered Rashee Rice 8 times for 130 yards and a landing in the wild-card playoff sport, and Isiah Pacheco included 89 yards hurrying and an additional score, sending the Chiefs (12-6) previous the Dolphins for the to start with time in four postseason conferences.
Ed Zurga / AP
Harrison Butker additional four area goals for the defending Tremendous Bowl champs.
The damage-depleted Dolphins (11-7) looked practically nothing like the dynamic offense that led the league in yards all through the normal season.
Tua Tagovailoa was pressured relentlessly by the NFL’s second-rated protection, large receiver Tyreek Hill had a 53-garden TD capture but was normally shut down in his return to Kansas City, and the Dolphins completed with just 264 yards in all.
They have not won at Arrowhead Stadium given that Nov. 6, 2011, nor received a playoff video game since Dec. 30, 2000.
In the meantime, the Chiefs won their 15th consecutive home playoff sport – not counting a trio of Super Bowls. But they will head to Buffalo following 7 days if the Expenditures defeat the Steelers on Monday in a video game pushed back again a working day by a blizzard. In any other case, the Chiefs will host Houston, which beat the Browns before Saturday.
Weather conditions is the significant story all through Dolphins-Chiefs recreation
It was minus-4 levels Fahrenheit (minus-20 Celsius) at kickoff, very easily setting a record for the coldest recreation at Arrowhead Stadium.
But it was wind gusts, whipping via at more than 25 mph and driving the wind chill to a bone-rattling minus-27 levels, that manufactured the climate definitely depressing for just about absolutely everyone.
That provided pop star Taylor Swift, who once yet again turned up to see her boyfriend, Chiefs tight close Travis Kelce.
She at minimum bought to look at from an enclosed suite. Most followers huddled outside in parkas, ski goggles and snow pants, and gamers huddled around heaters on the sidelines as if they had been an oasis in the chilly. The Countrywide Weather Services issued a warning for what it termed “dangerously chilly” temperature that had blanketed the Midwest.
In simple fact, the chilly may perhaps have built Mahomes’ helmet brittle adequate that a hit in the third quarter knocked a chunk of the plastic shell from it. The moment officials saw the fist-sized gap, they created Mahomes get a backup helmet from the bench.
The weather conditions didn’t seem to trouble Hill, who was taking part in in Kansas Metropolis for the initially time given that his old group traded him to Miami two many years ago. The league’s foremost receiver warmed up in a short-sleeved shirt, then proceeded to scorch the stout Chiefs defense and All-Pro cornerback Trent McDuffie for a his lengthy touchdown reception halfway by the initially fifty percent.
But the Dolphins’ offense usually struggled, just as it did in a 21-14 decline to the Chiefs in their November sport in Germany.
Kansas Town was significantly extra economical, scoring on four of its six first-50 % drives. Mahomes capped the first with a TD toss to Rice, and although ensuing drives held fizzling in the red zone, Butker included a trio of subject ambitions as Kansas Town took a 16-3 lead into the crack.
The Chiefs included an additional industry intention in the third quarter, but it was continue to a two-possession recreation early in the fourth when the Dolphins appeared to pressure one more industry target. But a late flag on Christian Wilkins for roughing the passer on third down gave Kansas Town a contemporary set of downs, and Pacheco plowed into the finish zone moments later to give the Chiefs a 26-7 guide.
The Dolphins ultimately place alongside one another a sustained generate afterward, but by that level it was significantly way too late. And when they failed to convert on fourth down, they have been headed to their 11th straight decline when the activity-time temp is 40 levels or much less.
Far a lot less, in this scenario.
Accidents
Miami: S Jevon Holland (knee) and CB Xavien Howard (foot) have been inactive. CB DeShon Elliott (calf) remaining in the fourth quarter.
Kansas Town: WR Kadarius Toney (hip) was inactive. DT Derrick Nnadi (elbow) left in the second quarter.
