Kelly: Dolphins Preaching Patience Defending Josh Allen

Buffalo's Josh Allen owns a 9-2 record in games played against the Dolphins and has beaten Miami with his arms and legs in most of these AFC East showdowns

Few players have dominated the Miami Dolphins like Josh Allen has since he entered NFL in 2018.

Not even the legendary Tom Brady had the level of success playing Miami that Buffalo’s dual-threat quarterback has.

“He’s not your ‘Average Joe’ quarterback,” Dolphins defensive coordinator Vic Fangio warned, referring to the Allen, who is 6-5, 240 pounds, and ran a 4.76 time in the 40-yard dash at the NFL combine. “With his movement and his size and his strength and his courageousness, he’s tough. He’s really good.”

Allen is 9-2 against the Dolphins, counting last year’s 34-31 playoff win, with his losses occurring in his rookie season in a game where Bills tight end Charles Clay dropped a possible game-winning touchdown pass in the end zone, and last year in the first of three games Miami played against Buffalo.

Both of those games were decided by three points or less and came down to the fourth quarter.

Allen has never lost against the Dolphins in Buffalo.

Buffalo had scored 32.7 points per game in Allen's starts against Miami and Allen has accounted for 34 of the Bills' 42 offensive touchdowns in those games (81 percent).

Best approach to defended Allen?

“Patience is the word of the week, for sure,” pass rusher Bradley Chubb said when asked about the challenge of facing Allen, who has rushed for 3,176 yards and 39 touchdowns in his 558 attempts. “It’s about not getting greedy. As a rusher you want to win on the edge, win on the edge. But this is a guy that will hurt the whole team if you focus on winning on the edge. We just got to be smart with the rush lanes and work together with the defensive tackles. Don’t be greedy taking those inside moves thinking you can win, or go too far outside. That’s where he can hurt you.”

In the regular season Allen has completed 63.8 percent of his passes against Miami, averaging 268.4 yards per game, 7.5 yards per attempt, and 2.7 touchdowns through the air.

He’s only been picked off five times (twice in his first game against Miami), and sacked 14 times by the Dolphins in nine times.

He’s combined with a 106.1 passer rating in those 10 games with 27 touchdown passes against only five interceptions, to go along with 55.4 rushing yards per game.

Forcing turnovers is key to beating Buffalo

Allen turned the ball over three times in their playoff matchup last season as Miami almost pulled off a miracle upset with Skylar Thompson at quarterback. 

Allen has an NFL-high 85 turnovers since he was drafted, including a 9-13 record when he has multiple turnovers, versus a 45-12 mark with one or fewer giveaways.

This season Allen is completing a career-high 72.7 percent of his passes, and considering accuracy has been the main knock on the Wyoming standout the Bills selected with the seventh overall pick, it's possible that he's turning the corner in that department.

If that is the case, the Dolphins could be in for a long Sunday.

“I love playing against him. He definitely brings the best out of you as a defense, as an individual,” said defensive tackle Christian Wilkins, who has had more than his share of on-field dust-ups with Allen over the years. “His resume speaks for itself. But definitely a heck of a player and we’re going to have to be on it this week as a defense and as a team because they’re a really good team and they play tough and we know them, they know us. There’s no secrets. Just have to go out there and ball, compete, and may the best man win.”