Written by Mykail Mereau
Heading into this Thursday night matchup between the Bills and Dolphins. The national media thought it was time for a changing of the guard in the AFC East which has been owned by Buffalo since 2020. A lot of experts and analysts picked Miami to win the game. They believed that the Bills didn’t have enough weapons on offense or the secondary on defense to slow the dynamic duo of Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. Well that wasn’t the case because Buffalo continued to show their dominance over their division rival the Miami Dolphins holding them to 10 points on the road in Miami the lowest scoring points in the Mike McDaniels era as their head coach.
Reasons why Buffalo won the game over Miami
Buffalo’s masterclass defense led by McDermott and Babich
A lot of talk about how the Bills lost so many pieces on defense. Every since the offseason, experts and the national media predicted that Buffalo’s defense to take a step back this year with a bunch of nobodies on the secondary. Well in these last two games including last night’s game, Buffalo’s secondary on the defense has completely shut down two of the dynamic offenses, Arizona and Miami. In Week 1, Cardinals first overall pick Marvin Harrison Jr. had a lot of expectations on him coming out the draft and everyone thought he was going off on the Bills secondary and having one of the greatest debut performances for a rookie. Buffalo’s secondary held Harrison Jr. to only four receiving yards and one catch in his first NFL start. Although, he was wide open for a potential game-winning touchdown down the field, but Kyler Murray didn’t see him in enough time. As for Miami’s offense, I mean what can you say, the Dolphins offense is invested upon speed led by the cheetah and penguin in Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. And yet, Buffalo’s secondary absolutely lock down Hill and Waddle held the dynamic duo under one hundred receiving yards of each with Hill having twenty-four receiving yards and Waddle having forty-one receiving yards. And this was a complete masterclass defensive minded approach by McDermott and Babich, not only the secondary has step up but the defensive line has been wrecking machine with dominating the trenches. The Bills defensive line harass Miami’s quarterback Tua Tagovailoa all night long getting a couple of sacks, applying pressure forcing him to commit three interceptions by Buffalo’s cornerbacks Christian Benford and Ja’Marcus Ingram which included a pick six by Ingram having the best game of his NFL career. This was a genius defensive minded game plan by McDermott and Babich as they getting into the heads of McDaniels, Tagovailoa, Hill, and Waddle. With the amount of injuries that the Bills had on defense, McDermott and Babich found a way to get their depth players involved into their defensive game plan and it was very impressive from start to finish masterclass defensive plan by the two.
James Cook ignites Buffalo running game all over Miami’s defense
Since the Bills gave Joe Brady the job as their offensive coordinator late in the year last season after parting ways with former Bills offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey. Buffalo have ran the ball effectively with James Cook as their leading rusher without Josh Allen turning in Superman at times. Cook was the Bills first running back to get over 1,000 rushing yards a season ago since LeSean McCoy in 2017. Cook ran over Miami’s run defense with only having seventy-eight rushing yards on the ground with two rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown in the air for seventeen yards in total of three touchdowns. The game plan was sample from Brady’s approach for the running game finding the open lanes through Miami’s run defense that was so great against run on defense last year. But now with their third defensive coordinator in two years with Anthony Weaver and Christian Wilkins no longer being on the roster, it could becomes a problem for them without a true run stopper on their defensive line. Luckily for the Dolphins didn’t give up 100 rushing yards from James Cook but it sure felt like he rush for 100 yards on the ground especially after forty-nine rushing touchdown he had beating former Bills safety Jordan Poyer to score for six points before the end of the first half of the game.
Josh Allen continues his dominance over the Miami Dolphins for his 12 straight win against them in his career
It’s official, Josh Allen owns the Miami Dolphins. Since coming into the league the one team Allen has had his best games against has been the Miami Dolphins. With a 12-2 record including the playoffs, thirty-seven touchdowns, nine interceptions, and 3,854 yards with a passer rating of 108.6, Allen has Miami’s number. Now, Allen didn’t have to do much against the Dolphins last night and turn into Superman for the Bills. But he still made some unreal plays when the Bills needed him to especially on the 3rd & 12 for 33 yards to running back Ty Johnson against Miami’s star cornerback Jalen Ramsey. And another amazing play from Allen to Shakir on 2nd & 11 for 21 yards against an trio of Dolphins defensive backs. He only put one touchdown pass and threw for 139 yards and a passer rating of 107.1, not the prettiest game from Allen against Miami but he still what he had to secure a victory for Buffalo over Miami. Also Allen stays perfect on Thursday nights improving to 7-0 dating back to the Thanksgiving game against the Dallas Cowboys in 2019.
Reasons why Miami lost the game against Buffalo
Tua Tagovailoa’s nightmarish game and questionable future of his NFL career
Let’s start off by saying we hope that Tua Tagovailoa is okay and well after that scary concussion injury hit on 4th & 4 during towards the end of the third quarter. Tagovailoa has a questionable future of continuing to play football for the rest of his career with now this being his fourth concussion injury in over two years. This is a tough decision on both sides. With Tagovailoa does he hangs up his cleats and uniform and retire as a family man? And for the Dolphins front office should they move on from Tua even though they gave him an contract extension this past offseason and find another quarterback through free agency or the draft? These are some tough decisions for both sides to discuss about make going forward. But with all of that being said before the concussion injury, Tua looked so lost out there on the field and his three interceptions was the soul reason on why Miami lost this game against Buffalo on primetime. In the opening drive of the beginning of the game, Tua Tagovailoa threw deep ball pass to wide receiver Grant DuBose, which in Tua’s defensive, the receiver did tip the ball directly to Ja’Marcus Ingram’s hands for the interception. Towards the end of the first quarter, Tua threw another deep ball pass that intended for Robbie Anderson which end up in the hands of Christian Benford instead. In the middle of the third quarter, he threw a terrible short pass which intercepted by Ja’Marcus Ingram again which resulted in a pick six to the house. Even though, we feel bad on what happened to Tua around the end of the third quarter it doesn’t excuse him from his poor performance against an Bills defense that has no Matt Milano or Terrell Bernard out there on the field.
Mike McDaniel’s inconsistent decisions going for it on fourth down came to bit him in the end
Mike McDaniels is one of the most offensive minded coaches in the league, but he has questionable decisions he made going for it on fourth down. Before the two minute warning during the second quarter of the game, McDaniels decided to go for it on 4th & 2 to extend Miami’s drive to try and get points before the end of the half. Well not only it was turnover on downs for a sack by Ed Oliver, but it also resulted the Bills getting a huge touchdown from James Cook for a forty-nine yards in great field position for Buffalo. Then towards the end of the third quarter on 4th & 4 became the worst thing that could happen to the Dolphins so early in the season, their franchise quarterback Tua Tagovailoa went down with his fourth concussion injury in over two years and was declared out for the remainder of the game. And a few plays afterwards he went to go for it again in 4th & Goal with backup quarterback Skylar Thompson and it went nowhere. McDaniels is at fault for the Dolphins lost just as Tua is for his inconsistent decisions on keep going for it on fourth down instead of taking the points. Him kept being aggressive on fourth down led to Tua’s injury which cost him in the end.
Not finding any rhythm on offense with Hill and Waddle
Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle are the most dynamic duo in the league, but there was no rhythm at all on offense getting the ball to either one of them. Buffalo’s secondary held the dynamic duo to under 100 receiving yards of each with Hill having 24 yards and Waddle having 41 yards. Miami just couldn’t move the ball and find their two best players on offense making something happened for Miami to get them right back in the game. If the Dolphins found an rhythm with Hill and Waddle on offense it’s obvious the game could’ve been more competitive and score would’ve been more closer too. But with Tua’s kept turning the ball over and McDaniels being aggressive on fourth down that came to bite him, it was hard for this Miami’s offense to find an rhythm and spark this speedster team with the two fastest receivers in the game. This was a game where everyone thought that Miami’s explosiveness on offense was going to take off give the Buffalo secondary a long night slowing them down, but however Buffalo found recipe on defense to slow down the Miami’s fastest receivers on offense and lock them boys up all night long.
