The Dolphins may have practiced in the snow on Sunday in Pittsburgh to prepare for a chilly Monday night meeting with the Steelers. But Miami’s offense still went cold.
The Dolphins are notorious for poor showings in cold weather. They are now 0-14 in games when the temperature is 40 degrees or colder at kickoff, the longest streak in such temperatures since the start of 2000, per ESPN Insights. It was 17 degrees at kickoff at Acrisure Stadium on Monday.
Miami’s offensive woes were especially hurtful in the third quarter, when the team amassed negative-20 yards of offense while the Steelers scored 14 points. The Dolphins had just five total first downs when the fourth quarter began.
The rushing game never got going, totaling just 63 yards at the end of the night. Rookie Ollie Gordon II, who scored two touchdowns in his last three games, left in the second quarter with an ankle injury and did not return.
Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa made a late-game push after a slow start, tossing two touchdowns to Darren Waller in the fourth quarter. But it wasn’t enough to make up for early mistakes, including Tagovailoa’s 15th interception of the season in the first quarter, the most in the NFL, and plenty of other close calls. He finished the game completing 22 of his 28 passes for 254 yards.
A bright spot was kicker Riley Patterson putting Miami on the board with a career-long 54-yard field goal in the second quarter. Patterson has made 24 of his 26 field goal kicks for the Dolphins this year.
