Chiefs deal with frigid situations to outlast Dolphins in AFC wild-card matchup

By Larry Holder, Nate Taylor, Zak Keefer and Richard Deitsch

The Kansas Metropolis Chiefs survived the Arctic temperatures Saturday and superior to play one other week as they pushed previous the Miami Dolphins 26-7 in an AFC wild-card matchup at Arrowhead Stadium.

Kansas Metropolis will be taught its AFC divisional-round opponent as soon as the convention’s wild-card spherical ends Monday.

The temperature at kickoff stood at minus 4, which was the fourth-coldest recreation in NFL historical past, by way of NBC, and a wind chill issue of minus 27. Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs dealt with the situations higher than the Dolphins.

Mahomes related primarily with rookie wideout Rashee Rice to the tune of eight receptions for 130 yards, together with an 11-yard landing catch. The Chiefs QB threw for 262 yards with a 83.6 passer score.

Kicker Harrison Butker added 4 area objectives earlier than tailback Isiah Pacheco closed out Miami with a 3-yard TD run within the fourth quarter.

The Dolphins ended their season with consecutive losses to the highest three seeds within the AFC: Baltimore Ravens in Week 17, Buffalo Payments in Week 18, Chiefs within the wild-card spherical. Miami’s once-potent offense continued its late-season downward development. Tyreek Hill scored the Dolphins’ lone TD on a 53-yard reception within the second quarter.

Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa went 20-of-39 passing for 199 yards with one TD and one interception, leading to a 63.9 passer score

In an odd second, Mahomes’ helmet cracked after taking a success throughout a quarterback scramble throughout the third quarter. A bit of the entrance of the it flew off onto the sector. The quarterback continued to play briefly with a gap within the entrance of his helmet earlier than officers stopped play to permit Mahomes to swap out the broken helmet with out utilizing a timeout.

Mahomes again being Mahomes

Mahomes, all through his seven-year profession, has constructed a powerful fame for taking part in his greatest in January and February. Since he turned the Chiefs’ starter in 2018, every January has began the identical: a playoff run that started inside Arrowhead Stadium.

Saturday’s recreation, although, featured just a few new particulars — the coldest recreation of his profession, his quarterback-specific VICIS helmet being cracked and a rookie receiver who produced a breakout efficiency in his postseason debut. However Mahomes was Mahomes, the league’s most-talented quarterback. He had one other stellar efficiency, particularly when the Dolphins blitzed again and again. His accuracy, even in windy situations, was wonderful. He selected the proper occasions when to scramble and he completed with just one adverse play, an intentional grounding penalty. — Nate Taylor, Chiefs beat author

Rice comes up huge

One of many weirdest components of the Chiefs’ season is the gathering of receivers. The six-player group — Kadarius Toney, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Justin Watson, Skyy Moore, Richie James and Rice — dropped 25 catchable passes within the common season, probably the most by any receiver group for the reason that 2012 Jacksonville Jaguars. However the perfect participant within the group is the youngest: Rice, the 23-year-old who the Chiefs traded up within the second spherical of the draft to accumulate. Mahomes related with Rice when the Dolphins blitzed or performed zone protection. Rice’s 130 yards is the perfect efficiency any Chiefs rookie receiver has had in a playoff debut, as he surpassed the 104 yards that Elmo Wright had in 1971 in an extra time recreation on Christmas Day in opposition to the Dolphins. — Taylor

Kansas Metropolis’s D stymies Miami once more

Led by coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, the Chiefs’ protection, for the second time this season, swarmed the Dolphins —Tagovailoa within the pocket and the skill-position gamers on the perimeter. Move rushers George Karlaftis, Chris Jones and Charles Omenihu generated constant stress on Tagovailoa, who was sacked twice and threw that one interception.

Except Hill’s landing in his first return to Arrowhead Stadium since he was traded by Kansas Metropolis in March 2022, the Chiefs’ secondary, led by cornerbacks L’Jarius Sneed and Trent McDuffie, was distinctive at protecting and tackling the Dolphins’ receivers. The primary time the Dolphins transformed on a third-down snap occurred early within the fourth quarter. Security Mike Edwards got here up with the interception and Sneed and McDuffie every completed with two go breakups. — Taylor

Dolphins fold versus upper-tier group once more

It was a bitter end for a Dolphins group that had practical hopes of incomes the AFC’s high seed as lately as New 12 months’s Eve. However its late-season skid began with a 56-19 loss to the Ravens that day, and Miami by no means recovered.

That 70-point eruption in September? All of the optimism that this 12 months can be completely different?

It wasn’t.

And now the Dolphins skid into one other offseason with out ever flipping the narrative that dogged all of them 12 months — that they have been merely pretenders, that they couldn’t cling with the perfect within the league when it counted.

Miami completed 1-6 in opposition to playoff groups in 2023, together with Saturday night time’s loss. Its level differential in these video games was -110.

Coach Mike McDaniel has gained 20 regular-season video games in two seasons in Miami and has turned the Dolphins into probably the most entertaining groups in soccer. However the subsequent step? The one the place the Dolphins grow to be a respectable risk within the AFC as an alternative of only a enjoyable common season story?

They’re nonetheless not there but. Nonetheless no division titles since 2008. And nonetheless just one postseason victory since Dan Marino retired in 1999.

McDaniel’s groups are 4-10 in video games performed in December and January during the last two years; they’re 16-6 in others. — Zak Keefer, NFL nationwide author

Is Tua the QB of the long run?

In the meantime, the largest offseason query will heart on the long-term way forward for Tagovailoa, who struggled all night time within the frigid chilly, ending with simply 171 passing yards. The Dolphins exercised his fifth-year possibility final spring, which retains him with the group by at the least 2024, however past that, the franchise must resolve if he’s well worth the weighty contract beginning QBs advantage nowadays. His cap quantity jumps from $9.6 million this 12 months to $23 million in 2024, which can restrict common supervisor Chris Grier’s capacity to maintain surrounding him with the expertise to which he’s grown accustomed. — Keefer

What might this imply recreation imply for Peacock?

Can sports activities result in long-term subscriber progress for a streaming product? That’s the guess loads of streamers have made and the principle purpose Peacock paid the NFL $110 million to televise the first-ever unique, live-streamed NFL playoff recreation.

Peacock at present has 30 million subscribers and a bunch of sports activities properties. What number of subs this particular recreation drives can be one thing each Peacock and the NFL research intently. Peacock at present loses cash, as is the case with most streaming entities. Comcast president Mike Cavanagh stated final month the platform would hit $2.8 billion in losses in 2023. Its hope is that $2.8 billion represents peak losses.

Rick Cordella, the president of NBC Sports activities, who additionally oversees sports activities on Peacock, stated in an interview that he would choose success first on the standard of manufacturing and if the technological distribution is clean and clear.

“You then get into a number of the metrics so far as what number of subs does it drive, what number of new subscribers will we’ve, did we meet our personal inside site visitors objectives, did we repay our promoting companions?” Cordella stated. “I believe the general story can be advised months down the highway. How many individuals churned out after one month and what number of people stayed and watched different content material on Peacock? It might not be a Sunday morning pass-fail grade. Months down the highway did this have the meant consequence of constructing the Peacock platform? That’s how we’re going to view it.” — Richard Deitsch, sports activities media reporter

Required studying

(Picture: Jamie Squire / Getty Pictures)