The Dolphins are not accustomed to freezing temperatures, but they'll be forced to endure the elements Sunday when they take on the Steelers in Pittsburgh. The expected high temperature? 16 degrees.
So, the Dolphins special teams prepared for Sunday's weather the only way they could in the 80-degree Miami heat: They put their footballs in the freezer.
"They definitely become hard in the colder weather,"said special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi, per the Associated Press. "But there's only so much you can do in this kind of weather to practice. We actually put balls in the freezer, believe it or not. But you bring them out, and five minutes later they've thawed out."
To pull off the upset Sunday, the Ryan Tannehill-less Dolphins will likely need their special teams to contribute in a big way. Their unit finished the regular season 12th in DVOA, but their kicking game struggled.
Andrew Franks went 16 of 21 on his field goal attempts -- that 76.2 percentage was the fourth-worst in all of football. Meanwhile, Matt Darr averaged 44.3 yards per punt -- the 10th lowest average in the NFL. Darr will have a difficult task Sunday, when he's forced to punt to Antonio Brown.
He should probably duck or run in the opposite direction if Brown heads his way with the football.
Just ask Spencer Lanning (pictured above).
