Moral victories suck, but is this a good loss for the Miami Dolphins?

The Miami Dolphins came up just short vs the Buffalo Bills this Sunday, moral victories suck but is this a good loss for the Dolphins? Let me explain.

The narrative by the media this week was “Miami can’t play in the cold!” but more specifically that dig was aimed at Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa. In his career, Tua was 0-2 in big games below 50 degrees.

After the Bills game, his record falls to 0-3 in these games, but this loss was nothing like the past 2 losses.

The first loss in the cold was the last week of 2020 vs the Bills, Dolphins needed a win to get in for the Playoffs, and the Bills put 56 points on Miami’s head. Tua was abysmal.

The second loss in the cold was vs the Titans in January 2022, the Dolphins needed a win to stay in the playoff race and ended up getting dismantled in a 3-34 demolition. Tua was also awful in this game.

Fast forward to this past Bills game, an important game on the road but not a do-or-die. The Dolphins lose a nail-biter. This time Tua performed pretty well.

Miami Dolphins – Tua Tagovailoa – By the numbers:

• 17/30 (57%)
• 234 Yds
• 2 TDs
• 0 INT
• 104.0 rating

Trent Sherfield had a brutal drop in the endzone on a dime by Tua, and Tyreek Hill had a big drop too but later made up for it with a TD himself. In other words, Tua Tagovailoa could have ended this game with a W and possibly another touchdown or two if his WRs don’t sell the bag.

But Tua wasn’t perfect either, once the snow started to fall heavy the Dolphins’ drives stalled and from there that was all she wrote for Miami.

So even with drops, some play-calling mistakes, and running out of juice in the end, the Miami Dolphins managed to stay within 3 points of the Super Bowl favorite Buffalo Bills.

The guys can go back, look at the tape, and learn from those mistakes. Those lessons were not going to be given in the training facility with the AC at 68 degrees.

And if the Dolphins are going to make a playoff run in January they’ll find themselves in similar situations whether it’s at Kansas City or Buffalo. And they’ll be able to apply everything they learned and maybe even an extra trick or two.

Did Tua kill the “can’t play in the cold” narrative? Not yet, but he’s sure knocked its teeth out and knocked it down to the floor. I need a bigger sample size to call it a clean KO on that narrative.

But it’s looking good so far, many people expected Tua and the Dolphins to fold and get crushed once again, but they almost stole the game like the grinch stole Christmas.

I usually mock moral victories, but this loss feels like a good lesson for the Miami Dolphins, what do you think?

Follow me on Twitter @3rdnJuan for more Dolphins content.