Dolphins At Chiefs Set For Wild Card Weekend

After Sunday night’s result, we now know who the Kansas City Chiefs will host on Wild Card weekend. In the end, it will be the Miami Dolphins traveling to Arrowhead Stadium to face the Chiefs. Both Miami and Kansas City ended up finishing the season at 11-6.

For the Chiefs, they hold the three seed in the AFC and have now won the AFC West for eight straight seasons. The Dolphins, on the other hand, fell to the six seed in the AFC after losing two straight to end the regular season, as well as three of their last five games. Miami was unable to stave off the surging Buffalo Bills for the AFC East division title.

The Dolphins and the Chiefs will play on Saturday night on January 13th. Kickoff is set for 8 p.m. eastern time. Though, this game will involve a first-ever feat for an NFL playoff game. This postseason contest will be exclusively streamed on Peacock for markets outside of Miami and Kansas City.

With the Wild Card playoff matchups now set, let’s take a quick look at some early headlines involving the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs. Let’s kick it off.

Rematch Of 2023 International Game

This will not be the first time that the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs will have met this season. Of course, these two squads squared off in Germany in one of the NFL’s international games for 2023. Kansas City was able to emerge victorious by a score of 21-14 against Miami. Although, it was not the cleanest of finishes for the Chiefs.

Kansas City started off hot offensively with their first drive of the game. Patrick Mahomes was dealing off of the bat and connected with rookie Rashee Rice for the game’s first touchdown. Eventually, the Dolphins were trailing the Chiefs 21-0 at halftime. Kansas City’s other two scores came via a Jerick McKinnon receiving touchdown and a defensive score where Mike Edwards lateralled the ball to Bryan Cook. Overall, that defensive score was set up by a fumble where Trent McDuffie stripped it away from Tyreek Hill.

In the second half, the Dolphins found some life with the offensive running game and the defense creating pressure on Mahomes. Kansas City was living dangerously on offense, putting the Chiefs defense in some tough spots. But eventually, that KC defense forced a turnover on downs at the end of the game with Miami threatening in Chiefs territory down by seven.

A Lack Of Impressive Wins

A lot has been made about the Miami Dolphins failing to gain impressive wins against good teams in big games. However, it is just something that the Dolphins have yet to consistently do over the last couple of years. This season, Miami was only a combined 1-5 in games against teams with a winning record at the time of the contest. In games against teams at .500 or worse at the time, the Dolphins were 10-1 this season.

On the flip side, you could argue that this is something that has plagued the Chiefs this season too. Kansas City obviously has not struggled with it as much as Miami has in prior seasons recently. Nonetheless, the Chiefs’ win over the Dolphins in Germany may be their most impressive, when considering teams that finished with winning records. And in seemingly every loss, Kansas City shot themselves in the foot, making for a feeling of devastation in close contests. 11 of the 17 games during the Chiefs’ regular season were decided by one score. A good amount of KC’s victories were ugly at best, to boot.

Recent Playoff Success Is Lopsided Between Chiefs, Dolphins

To say that the recent playoff stretches between the Dolphins and the Chiefs is lopsided, it would be an understatement. There was a time where Kansas City fans would have been happy with just one playoff win. But under Andy Reid, the Chiefs have now made the playoffs in 10 out of his 11 seasons with the team.

In total, Kansas City has gone a combined 12-7 in playoff games under Reid. With the quarterback-head coach combo of Mahomes and Reid, the Chiefs are 11-3 in playoff games. Obviously, Kansas City has appeared in three of the last four Super Bowls, winning two of those. The Chiefs have also hosted five straight AFC Championship Games.

This year will be just the sixth season that Miami has made the playoffs since 2000. In the Dolphins’ last five playoff games, they are 0-5. Four consecutive playoff losses have come in the Wild Card round. As for the last playoff win that Miami had, it was in the Wild Card round after the 2000 regular season concluded. The Dolphins won that Wild Card game at home against the Indianapolis Colts in overtime 23-17. When the Dolphins take on the Chiefs this upcoming Saturday, it will be the third straight Wild Card game where Miami will have to go on the road.