This little tidbit doesn't bode well for Dolphins' late-season playoff push
BOSTON -- Under new head coach Mike McDaniel, the Miami Dolphins got off to a great start in 2022. The team was 8-3 through Week 12, and 8-1 with Tua Tagovailoa as the starting quarterback. The lone loss came when Tagovailoa was knocked out of the game in Cincinnati before halftime, too.
But recently, the Dolphins have hit a snag, losing both games on their West Coast trip, first in San Francisco (a 33-17 final) and then in Los Angeles against the Chargers (a 23-17 contest). With four games remaining, the Dolphins still have time to bounce back and cement their spot in the postseason for the first time since 2016.
Yet one aspect of their loss in L.A. on Sunday night has to be a bit concerning for anyone hoping for a solid final month of the season for Miami.
That matter at hand? The Dolphins used heaters to stay warm on the sideline.
In Los Angeles.
That's not great.
SoFi Stadium is not a dome, in the sense that the stadium has a roof but has openings -- especially in the end zone -- to allow for the flow of natural air in the stadium. So while the field never gets fully exposed to the elements, wind is occasionally a factor on the field.
But ... it's also located in Inglewood, California. So it's never really cold.
Nevertheless, Mike Tirico noted during Sunday night's broadcast that the Dolphins had heaters on their sideline to keep warm. In Los Angeles.
The heaters weren't those giant torpedo-shaped blasters that you see on the sidelines in the NFL's cold weather cities, but looked more like garage space heaters or something along those lines. Still ... they were definitely heaters. In L.A.
The air temperature was in the 50s for the game. The Dolphins didn't play all that well, allowing Justin Herbert to pick apart their defense (39-for-51, 367 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT, 102.3 rating) while Tagovailoa struggled to get into any rhythm himself (10-for-28, 145 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT, 65.3 rating). They scored just two touchdowns, and one of them came on a fluky fumble recovery. Whether the struggles had anything to do with the temperature will remain a mystery.
What isn't a mystery, though, is that Miami does have some cold games coming up -- starting with a Saturday night trip to Orchard Park to face the Bills. Though the game is still six days away, the early forecast calls for snow during the day and temperatures in the high 20s for kickoff.
The news outlets in upstate New York are obviously having some fun with this development.
Two of the Dolphins' final three games will be held in the comfort of Southern Florida, but sandwiched in between those will be a trip to Foxboro to play the Patriots on New Year's Day. The unpredictability of New England weather means that game could be played in some brutally raw conditions or in unseasonably warm temperatures. Yet even if it's the latter, it'll certainly be a lot colder than Sunday night's game in Los Angeles will be.
And provided they hang on to a playoff spot, they could end up traveling to Kansas City, or Baltimore, or head back to Buffalo. Figures to be nippy no matter where the game may take place. Some brisk breezes await them.
McDaniel was looked at as a breath of fresh air in terms of his personality and coaching style when the Dolphins hired him away from San Francisco. It's an unfortunate twist, then, that fresh air just might be the team's greatest opponent in the final month of the season.
