No playoff team was worse against playoff teams than Dolphins. What they face Saturday

Battered and bruised, the Dolphins stumble into the NFL playoffs with at least six starters sidelined by injuries and an ignominious distinction:

They’ve performed worse against playoff teams than any of the other 13 teams invited to the postseason.

Miami (11-6) enters Saturday’s 8 p.m. wild card game at defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City with a 1-5 record and a minus-91-point differential against playoff teams. Per The Ringer, only the Giants (who finished 6-11) and Washington (4-13) were outscored by a larger margin against playoff teams.

As perspective, the league’s lowest two playoff seeds — Pittsburgh and Green Bay — have a combined eight wins against playoff teams.

“If you lose to two good teams down the stretch, you leave yourself vulnerable to say you can’t beat good teams, which will be the case until you do,” coach Mike McDaniel said after Sunday night’s 21-14 loss to Buffalo torpedoed Miami’s chances to win the AFC East and dropped the Dolphins from the AFC’s second seed to the sixth. ”That narrative will occur until you do things to change it.”

What’s more, Miami will play in Kansas City without its top three outside linebackers (Bradley Chubb, Jaelan Phillips, Andrew Van Ginkel), a starting inside linebacker (Jerome Baker), starting offensive linemen Connor Williams and Isaiah Wynn, and in all likelihood, without cornerback Xavien Howard.

If it’s any consolation to Miami, the Chiefs have appeared more vulnerable this season than anytime during the Patrick Mahomes era; they’re 15th in scoring at 21.8 points per game.

And the Chiefs are just 1-4 against playoff teams, with the win coming against Miami and the losses (to Detroit, Philadelphia, Buffalo and Green Bay) by a combined 16 points.

On Saturday night, the Dolphins will need to deal not only with frigid weather (the temperature in Kansas City is projected to be near zero at kickoff) but also a Chiefs defense that was second in the league in both yards allowed per game (289.8) and points permitted per game (17.3).

The Dolphins finished with just 292 yards, including 175 passing, in their 21-14 loss to the Chiefs on Nov. 5 in Germany.

Miami was 3 for 12 on third downs and 0 for 1 on fourth down in that game.

The Dolphins produced only 57 yards on their first four possessions, with all four ending in a punt. Miami gained 38 yards on its fifth possession before a Tyreek Hill fumble was recovered by the Chiefs and returned for a touchdown, giving Kansas City a 21-0 halftime lead.

The Dolphins scored twice in the second half on an eight-play, 80-yard drive capped by Tagovailoa’s 31-yard TD pass to Cedrick Wilson Jr. and a four-play 27 yard drive culminating in a Raheem Mostert 13-yard rushing TD late in the third quarter.

Chubb set up that second touchdown drive by forcing a Mahomes fumble, with Zach Sieler recovering.

But the Dolphins couldn’t get points on their two fourth-quarter drives in Germany, mustering 34 and 31 yards on those possessions.

In many ways, Miami’s offensive output against Kansas City was a microcosm of the Dolphins’ offensive play against good teams.

The Dolphins have averaged 16.5 points offensively against the six playoff opponents with winning records they faced this season, compared with 36.1 points in other games.

“When we watch the film the following day after playing these [good] teams, there is still success being had within the scheme,” tight end Durham Smythe said. “There’s a small thing here, a small thing there that stalls the drives that prevent us from getting points. it’s not like when we’re playing these teams they’re completely overpowering us. The scheme is still working.”

Tagovailoa, who had an 87 passer rating against the Chiefs in Germany this season, has an 84 passer rating in six games against five playoff teams and a 110.7 passer rating against others teams.

And Tagovailoa had his two worst games in the past two weeks, producing a 71.9 passer rating against Baltimore and a 62.7 rating against Buffalo, with a combined three TDs and four interceptions.

“We just didn’t come through and it started with me,” Tagovailoa said.

The offense should get a boost with the expected return of receiver Jaylen Waddle and running back Mostert; McDaniel said he’s optimistic that both will play after missing two games with ankle injuries.

Mostert had 12 carries for 85 yards (7.1 per carry) in the Nov. 5 game against Kansas City. Waddle was held to three catches for 42 yards and also had a run for 12 yards. “Two of the most dangerous weapons in the NFL,” Smythe said.

Defensively, the Dolphins were fully healthy for the Nov. 5 game and held Kansas City to 267 yards, including 174 passing by Mahomes, who won the NFL MVP award in 2018 and 2022 but has been hurt this season by a league-leading 40 dropped passes.

But the Dolphins defense will be far from healthy on Saturday.

Besides the previous season-ending injuries to Phillips and Chubb, Baker is out for the playoffs after wrist surgery on Monday and Van Ginkel is out for postseason with a foot injury. McDaniel said Howard (foot) is unlikely to play Saturday.

Safety Jevon Holland is playing through the effects of sprained MCLs in both knees. He was limited to 27 of Miami’s 78 defensive snaps against Buffalo.

The good news: This group will have another chance - perhaps a final chance - to prove they don’t shrink against good teams.

“Everything that we want is still in [play],” running back Jeff Wilson Jr. said.

TV UPDATE

Saturday’s game will air on “free television” only in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale and Kansas City markets, with NBC 6 televising in South Florida.

Other parts of the country, including the West Palm Beach market, will need the streaming service Peacock to watch. Peacock costs $5.99 per month; NBC says there’s no ongoing free trial. This will be the first NFL playoff game airing exclusively on a streaming service.

NBC-6 will simulcast Peacock’s broadcast, with Mike Tirico and former Cowboys coach Jason Garrett on the call.