Frigid temperatures await Miami Dolphins in playoff game versus Kansas City Chiefs

Saturday’s high temperature is forecast to reach just 11 degrees and dip to an overnight low of -5 degrees. At game time Saturday at 7 p.m. CST, temperatures will hover near 5 degrees.

The Miami Dolphins will have to overcome frigid temperatures Saturday night, in addition to injuries to key players and the doldrums of a two-game slump, when they play the Chiefs in Kansas City in an AFC Wild-Card game.

Kansas City meteorologists are not mincing words when discussing the weekend weather in warning it will be “bitterly cold” and blustery following a winter storm that is expected to dump snow across the region Friday.

Saturday’s high temperature is forecast to reach just 11 degrees and dip to an overnight low of minus-5 degrees. At game time Saturday at 7 p.m. CST, temperatures are expected to hover near 5 degrees with a wind chill of minus-11. The NFL record for the coldest game still belongs to the 1967 NFL Championship Game between the Cowboys and Packers at Green Bay’s Lambeau Field where the temperature at kickoff was minus-13.

That’s not a good forecast for Miami, which will be without starters Bradley Chubb, Jaelan Phillips, Andrew Van Ginkel, and Jerome Baker on defense as well as possibly missing cornerback Xavien Howard, who has been out the past two games with a foot injury and isn’t back practicing. Plus, the Dolphins lost 3 of their last 5 games.

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The most impactful setback was a costly defeat at home to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday night that sent the team to Kansas City as a wild card rather than being the second seed in the conference and hosting a game this weekend at Hard Rock Stadium.

Here are five instances going back more than 50 years of Dolphins’ history in winter weather.

Super Bowl VI — New Orleans

You can’t really tell from the bright photographs of that sun-splashed January 1972 afternoon in Tulane Stadium, but the game time temperature was 39 degrees with wind chills in the 20s.

The Dolphins were just as cold, with star fullback Larry Csonka losing a fumble for the first time that season and quarterback Bob Griese getting sacked for a Super Bowl record 29-yard loss. The Dallas Cowboys beat Miami, 24-3.

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The ‘snowplow’ game — New England

The Dolphins were rolling in December 1982 when they arrived in Foxborough, Massachusetts, for a matchup at Schaefer Stadium with the New England Patriots.

They were also confronted with snow, and a lot of it. The conditions on the field stymied both teams’ offenses, and the two clubs were in a scoreless deadlock late in the fourth quarter.

That’s when the Patriots lined up for a field goal, but first called on a field hand, snowplow operator Mark Henderson, to come on the field and clear the spot for what would be the game-winning field goal in a 3-0 loss for Miami.

Henderson was in a work-release program at the time. Asked about his starring role and the ire of the Dolphins’, he reportedly said: “What are they going to do, throw me in jail?”

Well, yeah.

2017 playoffs — Pittsburgh

The Dolphins qualified for postseason play after years of futility, but it was a short-lived euphoria.

Yes, the 17-degree temperature on that Jan. 8 afternoon proved to be a foe, but it was a game dominated by the Steelers throughout. They won 30-12 in a contest that was never really close.

December 2022 — Buffalo

Miami and the Bills fought for the division lead in this late-season showdown at Highmark Stadium. The Dolphins took the lead by dominating the third quarter. Then the snow began to fall and Buffalo was in its element, and walked away with a 32-29 win.

December 2008 — Kansas City

We’ll wrap it up with good news.

On Dec. 21, Miami played Kansas City with playoff hopes on the line. The temperature was a bitter 10 degrees.

Guess what? The Dolphins beat the Chiefs in a thriller, 38-31, to improve to 10-5 on the year. They beat the New York Jets the next week in the Meadowlands to win the AFC East division.

So, there.

Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at afins@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.