Game recap

Chiefs @ Dolphins

2026 Wk 3 · MIA 10, KC 24

Mahomes hit 20 of 24 while Miami turned nine third-down conversions into just 10 points.

FanIQ Research · September 28, 2026 · 5 facts, every one from the play-by-play

Mahomes went 20 of 24 for 246 yards. That is the third game of his career at 80 percent completion and 10 yards per attempt.

Rare

Every Mahomes regular season game with 20+ attempts, 80%+ completion and 10+ yards per attempt

Season	Week	Opponent	Comp	Att	Yards	TD	INT	Comp%	Y/A
2018	2	PIT	23	28	326	6	0	82.1%	11.64
2021	14	LV	20	24	258	2	0	83.3%	10.75
2026	3	MIA	20	24	246	2	1	83.3%	10.25

Quarterbacks in this game

Passer	Comp	Att	Yards	TD	INT	Carries	Rush yds
Patrick Mahomes	20	24	246	2	1	1	1
Malik Willis	20	36	210	0	1	9	56

Most such games by one passer, 1999 to 2026 regular season

Passer	Games
Drew Brees	13
Tom Brady	9
Peyton Manning	6
Philip Rivers	6
Baker Mayfield	6

Mahomes has started 128 regular season games with at least 20 attempts, and only three of them cleared both bars at once. His only miss of consequence was the deep ball to Rashee Rice that Jason Rodriguez picked off with 2:00 left in the first half. Across the league since 1999 the combination has happened 162 times, so it is roughly six games a season for all 32 teams combined.

Why it matters. Completion rate and yards per attempt usually pull against each other: the throws that complete at 80 percent are short, and the throws that average 10 yards are not. Getting both in the same game means the completions themselves were long, and here the first snap set the tone with a 48 yard strike to Travis Kelce. Against a Miami defense that had allowed 27 and 35 points in its first two games, Kansas City needed only 24 throws to put up 24 points.

Miami converted 9 of 16 third downs and scored 10 points. Since 1999 that pairing has happened 40 times in 14,638 team games.

Anomaly

This game, both offenses (pass and run plays)

Team	Plays	Yards	First downs	3rd down	Red-zone plays	Red-zone TD	EPA/play	Turnovers
MIA	67	329	17	9 of 16	6	1	-0.151	2
KC	49	334	16	3 of 7	15	3	+0.138	1

Teams with 9+ third-down conversions and 10 or fewer points, 2020 to 2026

Season	Week	Game	Team	3rd down	Pts	Opp pts
2026	3	KC @ MIA	MIA	9 of 16	10	24
2025	5	WAS @ LAC	LAC	9 of 16	10	27
2025	3	GB @ CLE	GB	10 of 19	10	13
2025	2	LAC @ LV	LV	9 of 18	9	20
2023	6	NYG @ BUF	NYG	10 of 19	9	14
2022	9	GB @ DET	GB	9 of 15	9	15
2021	16	NYG @ PHI	NYG	9 of 20	10	34
2021	6	HOU @ IND	HOU	9 of 17	3	31
2021	3	CIN @ PIT	PIT	9 of 19	10	24
2020	16	LA @ SEA	LA	9 of 19	9	20
2020	14	DAL @ CIN	CIN	9 of 16	7	30

Cohort size, 1999 to 2026

Team games	With 9+ conversions	9+ conversions and 10 or fewer points
14638	1106	40

Miami ran 18 more offensive plays than Kansas City and finished within 5 yards of it in total offense, yet it trailed from the 13:02 mark of the second quarter to the end. The drives that moved the chains stalled before the 20: only 6 Miami snaps came inside the Kansas City 20, against 15 for the Chiefs. Two turnovers, a Malik Willis fumble at the Kansas City 28 and his fourth-and-1 interception with 2:03 left, ended the two possessions that mattered most.

Why it matters. Third down conversion rate is normally the stat that tracks scoring, because sustained drives are how most points get made. Miami broke that link by converting at 56 percent and getting almost nothing for it, which points to where the drives died rather than how long they lasted. The red-zone snap counts, 6 against 15, are the mechanism: Kansas City needed fewer third downs because it kept reaching the 20 in fewer plays, and Miami's long drives kept ending just outside scoring range or with the ball on the ground.

Kansas City's first 11 snaps gained 119 yards at plus 0.81 EPA a play. Its next 38 gained 215.

Split

Score at the end of each quarter

Quarter	KC	MIA	Plays
1	7	7	37
2	14	7	42
3	14	10	36
4	24	10	43

Kansas City offense by quarter (pass and run plays)

Qtr	Plays	EPA/play	Yards	INT	First downs
1	11	+0.811	119	0	5
2	14	-0.301	77	1	4
3	10	-0.235	35	0	2
4	14	+0.315	103	0	5

Miami offense by quarter (pass and run plays)

Qtr	Plays	EPA/play	Yards	INT	First downs
1	17	+0.490	101	0	7
2	16	-0.615	80	0	3
3	18	+0.048	99	0	5
4	16	-0.592	49	1	2

The first Kansas City snap was a 48 yard Mahomes throw to Kelce to the Miami 19, worth 3.38 EPA on its own, and Kenneth Walker III finished the drive on a third-and-1 run from the 10. Miami answered with an Ollie Gordon II touchdown and the first quarter ended 7-7 with both offenses above plus 0.49 EPA a play. Neither team held that level: the Chiefs went negative in the second and third quarters, and Miami's second and fourth quarters were its two worst stretches of the game, at minus 0.615 and minus 0.592.

Why it matters. Both offenses opened hot and both cooled, but they cooled at different times, and the timing decided the game. Kansas City's cold stretch came while it already led 14-7, so its two negative quarters cost only field position. Miami's came in the second quarter, when a Willis fumble ended a drive at the Kansas City 28, and in the fourth, when it needed two scores and produced 49 yards on 16 plays. The fourth quarter numbers, plus 0.315 against minus 0.592, are the whole margin.

Six straight Chiefs wins over Miami. The Dolphins' last win in the series came in 2011.

Milestone

Chiefs versus Dolphins, every meeting in the database (1999 to 2026)

Season	Round	Game	Score	Winner
2002	Wk 4	MIA @ KC	KC 48, MIA 30	KC
2005	Wk 7	KC @ MIA	KC 30, MIA 20	KC
2006	Wk 10	KC @ MIA	MIA 13, KC 10	MIA
2008	Wk 16	MIA @ KC	MIA 38, KC 31	MIA
2011	Wk 9	MIA @ KC	MIA 31, KC 3	MIA
2014	Wk 3	KC @ MIA	KC 34, MIA 15	KC
2017	Wk 16	MIA @ KC	KC 29, MIA 13	KC
2020	Wk 14	KC @ MIA	KC 33, MIA 27	KC
2023	Wk 9	MIA @ KC	KC 21, MIA 14	KC
2023	Wild Card	MIA @ KC	KC 26, MIA 7	KC
2026	Wk 3	KC @ MIA	KC 24, MIA 10	KC

Eleven meetings since 1999, and Kansas City has won 8 of them. Miami took three in a row from 2006 to 2011, including a 31-3 result in Kansas City, and has not beaten the Chiefs since. The six game run covers five regular season games and the 2023 Wild Card game, and the Dolphins have scored 14 or fewer in four of the six.

Why it matters. These two teams share a conference but not a division, so they meet only every few years and the series has had time to flip twice. Miami's three wins came in a stretch when Kansas City was rebuilding; the six since have all come with Andy Reid on the Chiefs sideline. The scoring pattern is the tell: in four of the six losses Miami failed to reach 15 points, so the streak has been built on Kansas City's defense as much as its offense.

Kansas City went 1 and 7 on the road in 2025. Its first road game of 2026 was a 14 point win.

Trend

Chiefs road games, 2025 regular season and 2026

Season	Week	At	Score	Margin
2025	1	LAC	LAC 27, KC 21	-6
2025	3	NYG	KC 22, NYG 9	+13
2025	5	JAX	JAX 31, KC 28	-3
2025	9	BUF	BUF 28, KC 21	-7
2025	11	DEN	DEN 22, KC 19	-3
2025	13	DAL	DAL 31, KC 28	-3
2025	16	TEN	TEN 26, KC 9	-17
2025	18	LV	LV 14, KC 12	-2
2026	3	MIA	KC 24, MIA 10	+14

Chiefs road wins since 2024, by margin

Season	Week	At	Score	Margin
2024	17	PIT	KC 29, PIT 10	19
2024	15	CLE	KC 21, CLE 7	14
2026	3	MIA	KC 24, MIA 10	14
2025	3	NYG	KC 22, NYG 9	13
2024	7	SF	KC 28, SF 18	10
2024	4	LAC	KC 17, LAC 10	7
2024	8	LV	KC 27, LV 20	7
2024	3	ATL	KC 22, ATL 17	5
2024	12	CAR	KC 30, CAR 27	3

Six of the seven road losses in 2025 were by 7 points or fewer, and the lone road win came at the Giants in Week 3. The Chiefs opened 2026 with two home wins over Denver and Indianapolis, so this was their first game away from Arrowhead since the Week 18 loss to the Raiders. The 14 point margin is their largest in a road win since a 19 point result at Pittsburgh in Week 17 of 2024.

Why it matters. A 1 and 7 road record built on one score losses is usually noise rather than a structural flaw, and the 2025 Chiefs fit that pattern: they were competitive everywhere and closed almost nothing. One road win does not settle the question, but the shape of this one, ahead from the second quarter and never within one score after the Kelce touchdown, is the opposite of how those seven losses went. The next road tests will say more than this one does.

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