The Miami Dolphins season came to a close Saturday night at Arrowhead Stadium with a 26-7 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Miami showed its big-play ability on offense early in the second quarter on a 53-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to wide receiver Tyreek Hill, but otherwise struggled to move the ball against a Chiefs defense that finished the regular season ranked second in the NFL in total defense, scoring defense and sacks.
The Dolphins defense managed to hold Kansas City to just two touchdowns and kept the Chiefs lead to single digits for almost three and a half quarters.
The Dolphins could not claw back, however, as the offense finished just 1-for-12 on third down.
Hill led Miami in receiving with five catches for 62 yards (12.4 avg.) and scored the team's lone touchdown.
Despite allowing an 11-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Patrick Mahomes to wide receiver Rashee Rice on the Chiefs' first drive of the night, Miami's strong red zone defense from that point on kept the game within reach.
Down 13-7 with a chance to end the first half with a score and begin the second half with the ball, the Dolphins came up empty after a false start and a sack pushed the offense back 10 yards and forced a punt.
It was the first of three consecutive punts for Miami's offense from the end of the first half to the start of the third quarter. Those three drives kept the door open for the Chiefs to extend their lead and they took full advantage.
Harrison Butker kicked his third field goal of the game with 18 seconds left in the first half and his fourth on Kansas City's first drive of the second half. The Chiefs then followed up that 13-play scoring drive to start the half with a 14-play touchdown drive - both of which went for 69+ yards and took up a combined 12:33 of game clock - to open up a 26-7 lead and come away with the victory.
Rice and tight end Travis Kelce saw 22 of Kansas City's 34 targets and accounted for 201 of Mahomes' 262 passing yards.
Tagovailoa was 20-of-39 for 199 passing yards, one touchdown and one interception in his playoff debut while linebacker Duke Riley finished with a co-game-high 10 tackles.
