The Miami Dolphins entered their game on Thursday against Green Bay hoping to prove two things: that they can win in cold weather and that they can beat strong teams. Unfortunately, neither of these narratives changed as they lost 30-17 to the Packers, ending their three-game winning streak in a familiar way.
“That’s the thing with narratives,” Coach Mike McDaniel said after the game. “There’s one way to change them… the naysayers, you prove them right, they’ll be louder. That’s part of the territory. You carry that until you do something about it, and unfortunately, we didn’t tonight.”
Last season, the Dolphins won 11 games but lost six of their seven games against teams with winning records, including a first-round playoff loss. In 2023, they beat only one team with a winning record, which was Dallas in Week 16. This pattern has continued this year: Miami has won against teams with a .500 record or worse, but in their four games against teams with winning records, they are 0-4, getting outscored 115-57.
“In the National Football League, you learn hard lessons a lot,” McDaniel said. “We’ll have to hear about all the things that come with this loss, and I’d prefer that. I want things earned, not given, and we have some work to do to earn what our goals are.”
The Dolphins made costly mistakes early in the game against Green Bay. In the first five minutes, rookie Malik Washington fumbled a punt, giving the Packers the ball at the 9-yard line, which led to an easy touchdown. Miami also committed three penalties on their first drive: two false starts and an unnecessary roughness penalty when tight end Jonnu Smith got into a small fight with a Packers defender.
Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa found himself down by 14 points before even throwing an incomplete pass, as he completed his first nine passes. “The things that we progressed on, we somewhat ended up digressing within the first half,” Tagovailoa said. “Pre-snap penalties, things that we thought we were getting better at. Outside of the pre-snap penalties just the operation wasn’t our style of football that we showed.”
The Dolphins had been doing a good job of cutting down on penalties recently, with just eight penalties for 55 yards during their three-game winning streak. But on Thursday, they were penalized 10 times for 75 yards.
“That’s another microcosm of the issue,” McDaniel said on Friday. “You know, we can’t expect to have the results of the previous games and take a gigantic step back.”
Both McDaniel and Tagovailoa played down the effect of the cold weather on their performance, as the temperature at Lambeau Field was 27 degrees (around -2.7°C) with 10 mph winds and a wind chill of 18 degrees. The Dolphins are now 0-12 in their past 12 games where the temperature at kickoff was 40 degrees or lower.
Other players, however, were more direct in their assessment. “I feel like we let the elements control the way we played,” linebacker Jordyn Brooks said after the game. “As a group, I thought we were soft. Simple as that.”
