Saturday’s snow game between the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills is most certainly on. The Dolphins vs. Bills weather forecast is out. Prepare for some incredible visuals, America. As for the quality of football in that arctic setting? Stay tuned.
Final Dolphins vs. Bills Weather Forecast Suggests Snow Game
A Lake Effect Snow Warning is in effect for most of the region. What’s that mean? A ski resort’s worth of snow.
The National Weather Service’s Buffalo Forecast Office tweeted out the following Friday morning: “Lake effect snow warnings begin this evening and go through the weekend, with up to 2 feet off Lake Erie and even more snow off Lake Ontario.”
In case you’re unfamiliar with Buffalo geography, the Bills play in Orchard Park, a suburb 15 miles to the southeast of downtown. It’s just due east of Lake Erie, which spits out some epic snow storms.
In other words, Orchard Park is right on the snow belt and is in line to get between 18 and 24 inches of the white stuff over the next 48 hours. That means it’s supposed to snow before, during, and after Saturday night’s hugely important AFC East showdown between Miami and Buffalo.
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If there is a silver lining for the Dolphins, it’s this: The worst of it is supposed to hit before the game starts in the 8 p.m. hour.
As of this story’s publication, the chances of precipitation at that time were 44% with temperatures near freezing. The odds of snow actually decrease through the evening. Flurries are a lot better than a blinding blizzard.
Either way, it’ll be an environment that the Dolphins haven’t played through in some time — and Tua Tagovailoa hasn’t won in, ever.
Saturday, 8:52 a.m. ET Update: The forecast from The Weather Channel now calls for a 65% chance of snow at kickoff, with 11 MPH winds and the real-feel temperature at 20 degrees. Based on the forecast, nearly one inch of snow is expected to fall during the game.
Tua, in his two late December/early January cold weather road starts, has completed just 55.2% of his attempts with a 5.9 yards per attempt average and a passer rating of 58.8. The Dolphins lost those games by a combined 61 points.
There’s no way the Dolphins could prepare for those conditions physically this week. But they tried to battle them mentally, turning the AC at their indoor training facility thermostat down to the 60s and wearing T-shirts saying they wished it were colder.
“That was not intended to be anything but something that is just kind of a mentality for the team,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel explained. “I honestly forgot I had it on when I was out there with your guys’ cameras. I think an experience, whether it was fate or whatever, I’ve only spent one year on a cold-weather team in terms of coaching for one, which was Cleveland. Every other team, I’ve kind of been a warm-weather coach.
“In all of those circumstances, you inevitably have to play cold games. Philosophically, I think it’s important to acknowledge before the day of the game what it is. But at the same time, it’s a football game where the elements are the same for both people. I think that’s a way of emphasizing something but not obsessing about something, was my objective.
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“You guys have seen the shirts that I had for (the heat). The point being is we have a football game to play. I think it is the job of every player involved to get their mind right to have their best performance. The bottom line is I don’t see weather as something that you can lean on for x, y or z when you’re competing at a game that you guys do professionally. I think if a team allows it to be a thing, then it’s a thing. That’s our attempt to acknowledge the obvious and move on as fast as possible.”