SI

Josh Allen and Tua Tagovailoa Combined to Dink and Dunk at a Historic Level

Quarterbacks did not throw the ball downfield at all.

Kyle Koster

Tua Tagovailoa and Josh Allen kept things close to the line of scrimmage on Thursday night.
Tua Tagovailoa and Josh Allen kept things close to the line of scrimmage on Thursday night. / Mark Konezny-Imagn Images
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The Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills combined to play a legitimately entertaining and competitive Thursday Night Football game with an outcome that was very much in doubt until Tua Tagovailoa was picked off by Terrel Bernard late in the fourth quarter. And the AFC matchup didn't suffer from a chronic lack of points considering the 31-21 final tally enjoyed by the still-undefeated Bills.

What the game didn't have, though, was any type of meaningful downfield passing. Like, any quarterback successfully throwing the ball to a teammate past the sticks at all. Thanks to Next Gen Stats we know just how much dinking and dunking was being conducted by Tua Tagovailoa and Josh Allen.

Allen, who had three touchdown throws and appears well on his way to another NFL MVP award, didn't even bother attempting more than one pass that had over 10 air yards. Tagovailoa did most of his passing work behind his own line of scrimmage, completing as many passes behind it as beyond it. Combined the duo came in at 1.5 air yards per completion, the lowest ever since 2016. And possibly before it since that's when they began tracking this kind of thing with computers.

That seems bad, but is it? It was a pretty good and entertaining game. Mike McDaniel may have preserved his job in a loss. Buffalo is feeling really good about their ability to win with differing attacks. Best of all, neither quarterback needs to ice their arm the morning after.

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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

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