The Dolphins have made the most of a home-field advantage that has the opponent feeling like there’s home cooking and that they are the meal.
For games starting at 1:00 p.m. ET, the Miami sideline at Hard Rock Stadium stays in the shade. The visiting team remains in the sun. At one point on Sunday, Fox showed side-by-side thermometers. On Miami’s sideline, it was 90 degrees. On Minnesota’s sideline, it was approaching 120.
It didn’t keep Minnesota from winning, 24-16. After the game,. linebacker Za’Darius Smith told PFT by phone that the heat affected them “a little bit.”
“I feel like we prepared the right way inside our facility,” Smith said, “and I think Coach [Kevin O’Connell] turned the heat for us. We had to practice that up under there.”
The reward is that the Vikings get to go home to place where it’s much colder.
“We’re going back up north,” Smith said. “It was snowing two days ago. We just got used to the cold then we had to come back down to Miami. It was completely different.”
It’s also completely different for the Vikings this year. They’re 5-1, and they’re winning close games. They now get to enjoy their bye week before facing the Cardinals and Commanders. There’s a chance the Vikings will be 7-1 when they to Buffalo to face the Bills.
Where it won’t be 120 degrees on either sideline.