Dolphins Waste Strong Defensive Effort
For a good portion of the game at Highmark Stadium on Sunday afternoon, the Miami Dolphins played the kind of defense they did so often in 2020 and frustrated the Buffalo Bills.
Unfortunately for Miami, the offense couldn't pull its share of the load quickly or often enough and the result was yet another loss.
After playing to a 3-3 halftime tie when the Dolphins should have been ahead, Buffalo came up with touchdowns on back-to-back drives in the third quarter and came away with a 26-11 victory that handed Miami its seventh consecutive loss.
The Dolphins held the vaunted Buffalo offense to 122 total yards in the first half and only one third-down completion in four attempts, but the offense left at least six points on the board after two costly mistakes.
The first was a missed 36-yard field goal attempt by Jason Sanders, who continues his up-and-down season after his All-Pro performance of 2020.
The other was most representative of a sloppy performance that featured some false starts and some illegal shifts. It came at the end of a bizarre sequence late in the first half when the Bills had their offense on the field for a fourth-and-4 from the Miami 44, though it appeared their only intent was to try to draw the Dolphins offside.
Jaelan Phillips flinched and the Bills snapped the ball thinking they had a free first down, but the only penalty called on the play was an illegal grounding on Allen to avoid a sack.
That put the Dolphins in prime position to break a 3-3 tie and take the lead into halftime, especially after they moved to the 12-yard line. But on third-and-5 from the 12, confusion reigned on offense and Mike Gesicki began telling Jaylen Waddle where to line up.
Gesicki then went in motion to the left of the offensive formation, only to have the shotgun snap hit him in the chest. Buffalo recovered the loose ball to end the scoring threat.
CONTAINING ALLEN
It was a deflating end to a first half when the Dolphins turned up the pressure on defense and made Josh Allen look like they made so many opposing quarterbacks look in 2020.
The Dolphins officially didn't get any sacks, but they harassed Allen and made him hurry several throws.
But the offense only could muster a 51-yard field goal by Sanders in that first half, and things got worse in the second half when the Dolphins opened with three consecutive three-and-outs.
By the time the offense got going, Buffalo led 17-3 and the damage had been done.
Tua Tagovailoa did engineer an impressive 75-yard touchdown drive that featured a 10-yard completion to Waddle on third-and-5 and a 40-yard completion to Gesicki on a fourth-and-6, his longest completion of the season.
Tua capped the drive with a nice second effort on a 1-yard quarterback sneak and then he hit Gesicki for a two-point conversion to make it 17-11 with 9:39 left.
BUFFALO PUTS IT AWAY
But Buffalo answered with a field goal drive that ate up 6:10 to make it a two-point game (20-11) with 3:29 left and the Dolphins having used all their timeouts.
In desperation mode, Tagovailoa was picked off by safety Jordan Poyer to cap another ugly offensive sequence that included a drop by DeVante Parker, a holding penalty on Jesse Davis and a sack of Tua where Robert Hunt was able to recover Tua's fumble.
Allen closed out the scoring after the interception with a 7-yard scramble with 1:07 remaining.
After being knocked out early in the Week 2 game against Buffalo, Tua still was under pressure for a good portion of the rematch.
He had some moments, highlighted by the touchdown drive, but again threw most of his passes underneath.
Tua finished the game 21-for-39 for 205 yards with no touchdowns and the one interception and had a 58.2 passer rating.
Parker, back after missing three games with a hamstring injury, led the offense with eight catches for 87 yards and was the team's best offensive player, though his day ended with the ugly drop.
On this day, though, it was far from the ugliest or only mistake on offense.
But offense or defense, the bottom line was another loss in this nightmarish Dolphins season.
