2024-11-04 10:55:03
ORCHARD PARK – Miami Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel has been considered one of the bright, young emerging head coaches in the NFL since he took over the operation in South Florida in 2022.
He is a mastermind of offensive diversity and has built a dangerous and explosive attack centered around Tua Tagovailoa and more speed than the United States’ 400-meter Olympic relay team.
But when McDaniel and his Dolphins have played the Buffalo Bills, well, to say things haven’t gone well qualifies as a massive understatement.
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Sunday afternoon at Highmark Stadium, the desperate 2-5 Dolphins are in a precarious spot because their season is probably on the line, and to save it, they have to find a way to beat the team that pounded them into submission ever since Sean McDermott became head coach in Buffalo back in 2017.
“We’re trying to be the team that is, at the end of the season, the team that wins the AFC East and to do that, you have to go through Buffalo based upon history,” McDaniel said Friday. “I’ve been here for six games against them, I think. Four out of six were one-score games, two of them got out of hand. So what does that mean to us? We can learn from things that have occurred in previous experiences, but that doesn’t define us because who cares, what if we won all of those games?
“It doesn’t matter for this game. You have to acknowledge the obvious when you’ve lost to a team a bunch, you definitely want to beat them, but those games previously – our objective is to make those erroneous and to learn from the past mistakes and execute in a manner that gives you a chance to win. Because regardless, to beat the Buffalo Bills, you’re going to have to execute down to the wire because experience has told us it will come down to that if we’re trying to win the game. I think it’s just important to be not delusional as to your past but that you really focus on learning lessons from the past and using it for your future.”
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Buffalo escaped with a win and has beat Miami six straight times. Tyler Bass, whose struggles this season led Buffalo to bring in another kicker to the practice squad, drilled a 61-yard field goal with five seconds left.
There were 41 points and seven straight scoring drives in the second half. Miami had an advantage on first downs (26 to 24), total yards (373 to 325) and time of possession (31:53 to 28:07).
Josh Allen completed 25 of 39 passes for 235 yards with three touchdowns an one interception. Ray Davis had two receptions for 70 yards and a touchdown for the Bills.
Tua Tagovailoa went 25 of 28 for 231 yards with two touchdowns. De’Von Achane rushed for 63 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries and made eight catches for 58 yards and a touchdown for the Dolphins.
Buffalo improves to 7-2 and Miami drops to 2-6.
Josh Allen is 13-2 against the Dolphins.
Tyler Bass missed an extra point. He doinked in an extra point off the left upright. He made a 61-yard field goal. All in the same game.
Buffalo only drove 27 yards but Bass made a huge go-ahead kick with five seconds left.
The possession didn’t begin well. Josh Allen was sacked on the first play and threw incomplete on the next play. Two straight penalties hampered the Dolphins. Rookie defensive end Chop Robinson was called for a neutral zone infraction on third-and-14. On third-and-9, Josh Allen threw deep for Keon Coleman. It was incomplete but safety Jordan Poyer was flagged for unnecessary roughness. The Bills gained one other first down on back-to-back short receptions by Mack Hollins. Allen spiked the ball to stop the clock and then threw incomplete twice before Bass’ field goal.
Miami went 81 yards in 11 plays to tie the game.
De’Von Achane opened the possession with a 12 yards run and Tua Tagovailoa followed it with a 19-yard pass to Tyreek Hill to get to midfield. Achane took a short pass 9 yards for another first down. Tagovailoa converted a third down with a completion to Jaylen Waddle for 12 yards. Achane got to the Bills’ 5-yard line with an 18-yard reception. Waddle caught a 7-yard touchdown and Jason Sanders tacked on the extra point to make it 27-27.
Josh Allen was about to get slammed to the ground and he still threw a touchdown pass. Allen capped a 10 play, 70-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown to Quintin Morris. Allen ad-libbed on the play, stepped up in the pocket and flipped the ball to Morris before being taken down by defensive tackle Da’Shawn Hand. Tyler Bass hit the left upright on the extra point but it went in.
De’Von Achane scored his second touchdown of the game. Achane sliced in for an 8-yard touchdown run to cap a nine play, 70-yard touchdown drive for the Dolphins. Two plays earlier, Miami went for it on fourth-and-3 from the Bills’ 24-yard line and Tua Tagovailoa scrambled for 4 yards, diving head first for the first down. Bills coach Sean McDermott challenged the spot of the ball but the play was upheld.
Buffalo’s rookies came up big. Running back Ray Davis took a short catch 63 yards for a touchdown. Miami blitzed, went into man-to-man coverage and no one accounted for Davis. Josh Allen found Keon Coleman in the end zone for the two-point conversion.
Miami couldn’t answer the Bills’ touchdown but took the lead with a field goal. Tua Tagovailoa completed a 28-yard pass to Tyreek Hill to reach the Bills’ 11-yard line. Miami faced fourth-and-goal from the Buffalo 5-yard line and Jason Sanders made a 23-yard field goal.
Buffalo went for it on fourth-and-goal from the 1. Josh Allen threw a touchdown pass to Mack Hollins in the left corner of the end zone off a play fake for the lead. Tyler Bass missed the extra point. It’s his third missed extra point this season.
The Bills capitalized off a fumble recovery with the 11-play, 64-yard touchdown drive.
Raheem Mostert was slicing through Buffalo’s defense to start the second half. Then he lost a fumble. Cornerback Taron Johnson punched the ball loose and cornerback Kaiir Elam jumped on it at the Bills’ 36-yard line.
Mostert had three straight touches to open the third quarter: a 7-yard run, 15-yard reception and gained 8 yards on a carry before the fumble.
Miami leads the NFL in fumbles and has seven in the last three games.
Buffalo has entered the red zone three times and has two field goals and an interception.
Josh Allen has completed 12 of 19 passes for 79 yards and an interception and James Cook has 18 rushing yards on four carries for the Bills. Tua Tagovailoa is 10 of 11 for 82 yards and a touchdown and Raheem Mostert, 35 yards on seven carries, and De’Von Achane, 34 yards on six carries, are each averaging at least 5 yards per carry. Tyreek Hill has one reception for 6 yards and Jaylen Waddle hasn’t been targeted.
The Bills can’t wait to get to halftime because they played a pretty lousy first half and are lucky to only be down 10-6.
After the Miami TD, the Bills drove 39 yards in 12 plays to Tyler Bass’ 49-yard field goal, but it was quite a letdown. The Bills blew themselves up with penalties and dropped passes, the biggest being Josh Allen’s 21-yard TD run nullified by a hold on O’Cyrus Torrence.
Neither side of the ball played well, and the Bills need to get it figured out quickly or they’re going to be headed for a rough loss to a division opponent.
These are the kind of momentum swings that change the course of the game, and now the Bills have to find one of their own. They were on their way to scoring when rookie Keon Coleman let a pass go right through his hands at the 3-yard-line and Jalen Ramsey made the interception.
The Dolphins, clearly inspired, proceeded to destroy Buffalo’s defense as they drove 97 yards in 14 plays, chewing up 8:21 off the clock.
Raheem Mostert smashed his way to rushes of 15 and 12 yards, De’Von Achane had a 10-yarder, and Tua Tagovailoa picked the defense apart with short passes including his 14-yard TD pass to Achane on a pass over the middle where the Bills’ defense was nowhere to be found.
The Dolphins answered Tyler Bass’ field goal with a 39-yarder by Jason Sanders to draw even.
Miami drove 49 yards in nine plays, the big play a third-and-11 conversion when Tua Tagovailoa hit Raheem Mostert for a gain of 17 yards, and then the officials called an absurd personally foul penalty on the tackler, Taylor Rapp, even though Mostert lowered his head laid the boom on Rapp. That tacked on 15 more yards, but after Miami achieved another first down, Rapp got his revenge by stuffing Mostert on a third-and-1 play.
Jalen Ramsey picked off Josh Allen.
Buffalo was moving the ball with ease and had a first-and-10 from the Miami 11-yard line. Allen threw over the middle for Keon Coleman but it went off the rookie’s hands. Jalen Ramsey made an adjustment on the ball and made a terrific interception at the Dolphins’ 3-yard line.
It’s Allen’s second interception in the last two games.
Tyler Bass has the Bills on the board with a 40-yard field goal, but it was a bit of a disappointment for Buffalo.
Brandon Codrington’s 29-yard punt return gave the Bills a drive start at the Miami 37, but after Khalil Shakir’s third-down conversion, the Bills could not get another as Josh Allen was sacked by Emmanuel Ogbah on third down.
Miami picked up one first down. De’Von Achane rushed for 7 yards and Tua Tagovailoa completed to Tyreek Hill for 6 yards. Tagoaviloa couldn’t handle the ensuing snap and was tackled by Greg Rousseau for a 1-yard loss. Odell Beckham had a 6-yard catch and on third-and-11, Tyreek Hill couldn’t bring in a ball over the middle. Jake Bailey had a poor 37-yard punt and Brandon Codrington picked up the ball off the bounce on the run and went up the right sideline for a 29-yard return.
Buffalo received the ball first and went three-and-out. James Cook ran for 4 yards, then was hit in the backfield for a 1-yard loss. Josh Allen was pressured on third down and threw incomplete for Keon Coleman. Sam Martin punted 49 yards and Cam Lewis made a great special teams tackle, swinging down Malik Washington for a loss of a yard on the return.
The Bills received some troubling news as both wide receiver Amari Cooper and cornerback Christian Benford – who were listed as questionable – are not going to play against the Dolphins. Cooper got hurt last week in Seattle, while Benford suffered his injury during the practice week and was a limited participant, but it looked like both were going to be able to play.
They are joined on the sidelines by fullback/special teamer Reggie Gilliam who was ruled out Friday with a hip injury, linebacker Nicholas Morrow, offensive lineman Will Clapp, defensive tackle Zion Logue and safety Mike Edwards.
Wide receiver Curtis Samuel, who sat out the Seattle game with a pectoral muscle injury, is active and will take Cooper’s spot in the lineup.
For the Dolphins, they are also missing three key players, all on their defense – tackle Zach Sieler, safety Jevon Holland and nickel cornerback Kader Kohou.
The Bills have owned Miami like no other team since McDermott came to Buffalo. He’s 14-2 all-time against the Dolphins with two of his victories on the road clinching either a playoff berth (2017) or a division title (2023). He’s 12-2 with Josh Allen as his QB, and he has never lost to them at Highmark Stadium.
That probably won’t change Sunday, but one thing to be leery of is Miami will come to town as a desperate team, knowing that if it doesn’t end its misery against the Bills, falling to 2-6 could essentially end any hopes it has of getting back into the wild-card race. Still, the Bills are the better team, playing at home, and they fully understand that while they’re currently in great shape in the AFC East, playoff seeding is tremendously important so they need to keep stacking wins.
∎ Cable/Network TV: CBS. The game will be available locally via the following stations: WROC channel 8 (Rochester area), WIVB channel 4 (Buffalo area), WTVH channel 5 (Syracuse area), WKTV channel 2 (Utica area), WENY channel 2 (Elmira area), WRGB channel 10 (Albany area), and WBNG channel 12 (Binghamton area).
∎ Online streaming services: You can watch games on NFL.com and the NFL mobile app, and you can subscribe to NFL+, the league’s own streaming service, though you can’t cast the games to your TV – you must watch on your phone or tablet.
∎ TV streaming: You can also stream games if you have subscriptions to Spectrum, DirecTV, fuboTV, Sling, Vidgo, Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, and Paramount+.
You can listen on SiriusXM satellite radio on channel 382 (Bills feed) and channel 227 (Dolphins feed), and on traditional radio, the Bills Radio Network has stations all across the state. Chris Brown has the play-by-play, Eric Wood is the analyst, and Sal Capaccio is the sideline reporter. The network includes:
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, and he has written numerous books about the history of the team. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast
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