What Chiefs said about cold weather vs. Dolphins — and how they overcame it
There are two sides to this, so let’s start with the obvious part with the Kansas City Chiefs following their 26-7 Wild Card victory over the Miami Dolphins:
Yes, they were cold out there at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. Minus 4 degrees at kickoff — with a 27-under wind chill — will do that to you.
Offensive lineman Donovan Smith said it was difficult to breathe with icicles in his nostrils. Receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling compared it to Alaska ... or standing in your freezer for three hours.
And Chiefs coach Andy Reid’s famous mustache was — literally — frozen. Most everyone saw that, from television viewers to sideline officials to rookie receiver Rashee Rice.
“We were in game mode,” Rice said with a laugh about the icy facial hair. “I didn’t say nothing (to him).”
Without question, the lasting legacy of this Chiefs game will be the temperature. It was the fourth-coldest game in NFL history, according to the league’s record books, played on a night when Kansas City dipped to a near-record low with gusty northerly winds reaching 30 mph.
Running back Isiah Pacheco ditched a pre-game visor on his helmet because it fogged up so much. (“I ain’t got no wipers,” he said with a smile.) Safety Mike Edwards pulled down a game-changing interception in the first half, later admitting that he was wearing two sets of gloves — snow ones on the bottom and football ones on top.
“It was cold. I ain’t gonna lie,” Edwards said. “The wind was kicking up a little bit. We just had to try to block it out as much as possible, but it was bad. It was bad.”
The other part of this, though, is what didn’t happen. The Chiefs didn’t look all that different Saturday — and played much more to form than the Miami Dolphins, who might’ve been stunned by weather 70 degrees colder than back home.
Their own response wasn’t by accident, Chiefs players said afterward. Coaches talked about the weather. Embraced it in outdoor drills during the week. Spoke about how it might impact the game.
“We made it a point that, the first five, 10 plays of this thing is going to be critical to setting the stage of how the rest of the game is gonna go,” Chiefs safety Justin Reid said. “Either you’re gonna buy into it, or you’re gonna whine and complain. And if you whine and complain, it’s gonna be a long day.”
The Chiefs, as we saw clearly Saturday, bought in.
A few players said the groundwork for that started early.
Cornerback Joshua Williams said he immediately noticed that chilly outdoor practices didn’t stray from previous weeks. In other words, each position group — whether it was receivers catching extra passes, or guys getting in post-workout conditioning — did the same thing after workouts, even when the temperatures were far below normal.
“I would have been very shocked if we were to come out here playing timid or just not up to par,” Williams said. “Just throughout the week, you could see we were here to play a football game, and not to battle the elements.”
Other teammates had similar stories about the Chiefs’ focus. Rice said he could sense it in drills when the team had its first “jog-through” of the week — and that was more like a full sprint because of the way coaches ran things.
Pacheco also noted the tempo was “fast” throughout the team’s work in previous days.
“That’s what we needed,” Pacheco said. “You could tell that’s what was going on.”
Defensively, the Chiefs also spoke openly about what needed to happen to slow the Dolphins’ high-flying offense.
Linebacker Nick Bolton said defensive coaches stressed physicality, whether that was getting hands on receivers or standing strong in the run game.
“I think if we play a fast team — a finesse team like they are — you’ve got to make sure their rhythm and timing ... you have to be able to knock that off a little bit,” Bolton said.
Another factor that favored the Chiefs was tackling, which shouldn’t be taken for granted on a night like Saturday. Cold weather makes these plays more difficult on defenses, as falling to an ice-hard turf hurts worse than usual. Defenders’ bones feel the impact of every hit much more than on a warmer-weather day.
That part of the game swung way in favor of the Chiefs. The offense broke away often from arm grabs. The defense — much of the night — got the Dolphins down on first contact.
And perhaps no contrast was more telling when distinguishing which team played better under the harsh conditions.
“The team that can tackle — the teams that can make big hits, big plays — are gonna be the teams that win,” Chiefs cornerback Trent McDuffie said.
That held true Saturday. Yes, the Chiefs definitely felt the cold out there, just like their fans in attendance.
But they prepared to not let it affect them — with that part going to plan.
“Everybody out here was playing for each other. So we just put the weather to the side, and knew that our opponents didn’t want to be here — out here in this cold as much as we did,” Rice said. “So we just took it to the chin and showed our love for the game.”
This story was originally published January 14, 2024 at 6:30 AM.
