The Miami Dolphins‘ winning streak will now stay frozen after a disappointing 30-17 loss to the Green Bay Packers. The Dolphins went into the Thanksgiving game hoping to break some historical narratives but failed miserably. The 27 degrees Fahrenheit with wind chills didn’t make things easy. As their RB Josh Jacobs said post-game, “Them boys looked cold out there.” But aren’t we all a little bored of the team losing their winter games and shifting the blame to the weather? Well, at least veteran QB Ryan Fitzpatrick feels the story behind the team’s loss goes way deeper than just the cold management issue.

The Dolphins currently have the longest streak without a playoff victory. Twenty-three years is no joke, considering the team was a force to reckon with pre-2000s. Thankfully, their playoff appearances have not been that disastrous. But even then, they have a pattern. They keep losing in the Wildcards.

And Fitzpatrick seems to think it’s because “they have a bit of a front runner mentality.” When the veteran was asked his thoughts on Miami this season, he wrote on X, “When things get tough they don’t have it in their DNA to handle adversity as well as some of the top-tier teams.” Accepting “the narrative about the cold weather with the Dolphins,” he said, “a worse stat to me is McDaniel is 1-14 against teams with a winning record in his 3 seasons.” 

The retired QB’s words may cut deep, but the numbers back him up. First off, the cold weather narrative. After the Dolphins lost to the Packers, the team once again proved they don’t do well in colder games. When the temperatures go below 40, the team loses, and stats prove it. They are now 0-12 in the last 12 games that had temperatures at 40 or less.

Take, for example, their 2023 Jan 15 game against the Bills. The weather was 27 degrees, and the Bills won 34-31. Almost a year later, Miami met the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead, played in a negative 4-degree temperature, and lost. So, we get the narrative part and why Tua Tagovailoa said he is “excited to kill narratives”. But his mighty words were as hollow as a drum.

Are the Dolphins capable of swimming with the big fish?

Fitzpatrick knows what he is talking about. A little research on Tagovailoa would show how he has yet to win an NFL game where the starting temperature was under 40 degrees. In fact, the QB is now 0-8 in games where the temperature is 40 or lower. So, no, he did not kill narratives but still managed to get 365 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 37 of 46 completed passes. So, was cold really a big factor in their loss? Speaking after the game, HC McDaniel was quick to say, “I think the weather and the cold, I didn’t really see that as much of a factor as playing football and technique and fundamentals and bringing our feet collectively and getting our hips into tackles and wrapping up.”

Then what really went wrong, McDaniel? Let’s circle back to Fitzpatrick’s shock at the HC’s 1-14 record against strong winning teams. In 2023, the Dolphins secured eleven wins, but out of their seven losses, six were against teams that were performing exceptionally well. In the entire last season, the only winning team they managed to defeat was the Dallas Cowboys. 2022 was no different, with their crushing losses against teams like the Chiefs, Bills, or Eagles.

Coming to 2024, the pattern (and the narrative) has not changed. The team has won against 5 teams, and yes, you guessed it right, all of them had records at or below .500. But in their 4 games against winning record teams, the Dolphins are yet to score a victory. Makes you think, right? Are the Dolphins this year’s paper tiger team?