What stood out in Thursday night’s game between the Miami Dolphins and the Buffalo Bills:
Nothing we wrote before or after that horrific night was particularly meaningful after what happened to quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Now the focus turns to his future status, as well as the sad reality that the Dolphins were once again handily outmatched by the Bills.
Seeing Tua stay on the field after the fourth-down scramble in the third quarter was troubling on many levels, starting with concerns for Tagovailoa’s well-being given his concussion issues from two years ago.
It was already an injury-filled night, as the Dolphins lost both of their offensive linemen on the left side of the line, Robert Jones and Terron Armstead. It’s really concerning to see Armstead continue to have bad luck with injuries, and he’s also someone the Dolphins can’t afford to lose for very long.
In short, this is the kind of game that could ruin a season and test the Dolphins’ resolve.
We start with the list of inactive players, with particular mention of running back Raheem Mostert, who is out due to a chest injury. The good news for the offense was that running back De’Von Achane, who was on the The final injury report was questionable and active due to an ankle injury.
With Mostert out, rookie and fourth-round pick Jaylen Wright was active and about to make his NFL debut.
Besides Mostert, the other inactives were the same as in Week 1: CB Ethan Bonner, LB Channing Tindall, LB Mohamed Kamara, OL Andrew Meyer and WR Malik Washington. Like Mostert, Washington was ruled out on Wednesday, in his case because of the quad injury that also kept him out of the season opener.
The Dolphins got the ball first and immediately showed off their new approach on third-and-short this season, handing the ball off to fullback Alec Ingold on third-and-1. He gained 3 yards up the middle, allowing the Dolphins to make 4 of 4 run conversions on third-and-1 after going 5 of 11 last season.
Also worth mentioning is Aaron Brewer’s great clearing block, which paved the way for a 5-yard run by Achane.
Things quickly went downhill after that, however, after Tyreek Hill took himself out of the game after an incomplete pass on a deep shot, while cornerback Christian Benford immediately backed away and was in an excellent position the whole time.
On third-and-13, Tua threw rookie Grant DuBose down the field, but didn’t turn around quickly enough and the ball bounced off his shoulder and landed right in the hands of Buffalo DB Ja’Marcus Ingram. This is one of those cases where the pick goes on Tua’s stat sheet, but wasn’t actually on him.
Buffalo capitalized on a 37-yard touchdown drive that gave the Bills a 7-0 lead when they went all out aggressively on fourth-and-3 from the Miami 17-yard line. On the touchdown, linebacker David Long Jr. got caught in a jam, and that left James Cook completely free after he swerved to the left.
The Dolphins actually had a few nice plays in this defensive series, starting with Jaelan Phillips not jumping on a naked bootleg and forcing an incomplete pass, followed by Zach Sieler botching a third-and-2 with Long joining him in the backfield.
The Dolphins came back with an impressive 70-yard touchdown run – after another touchback on the supposedly new “dynamic” kickoff return. The key plays of the drive were a couple of unscheduled passes from Tua, one to Jonnu Smith for 15 yards and the other for 17 yards to Jaylen Waddle on third-and-4.
Achane looked good on that drive, carrying the ball four times (with runs of 14 and 8 yards) and capping it off with a 5-yard touchdown pass as the Dolphins ended up with Achane and Ingold on the right side with only a Buffalo defense in the area.
Buffalo’s next drive ended in a three-and-out when Josh Allen dropped the shotgun snap on third-and-1 and Calais Campbell deflected his pass after picking up the loose ball and running to his right. We should probably get used to Campbell deflecting passes.
The Dolphins continued to use their speed laterally on their next attack. Tyreek Hill took a pitch in the backfield, effortlessly turned the corner and gained 12 yards.
However, on the next play, Tagovailoa threw his second interception while attempting to hit Robbie Chosen on a mid-range pass. This may have been due to the quarterback and receiver not being on the same page, but either way, it gave Buffalo the ball at the Miami 44-yard line.
After the Dolphins decided to go for a three-and-out sprint and Allen hit Khalil Shakir after spending a lot of time in the pocket, the defense allowed a third-and-5 conversion to limit Buffalo to a field goal.
Jalen Ramsey continues to be great in run support, breaking up a James Cook run where Cook did a great job but only gained 3 yards.
Jordyn Brooks showed great coverage skills as he stayed step-for-step with Jordyn Brooks on the sideline and forced an incomplete pass.
On their next drive, the Dolphins held on to three attempts, largely because Jaylen Wright was penalized for holding on a second-down run after gaining three yards on his first NFL run.
The next defensive series was not good, starting with Jordan Poyer receiving a penalty for unnecessary roughness at the end of a 21-yard pass.
The run defense showed some weaknesses when freshman Ray Davis ran for 8 and 10 yards on two consecutive plays.
The killer of the drive came on third-and-12 from the Miami 34-yard line, when Allen gained time by scrambling in the pocket and found third-down back Ty Johnson near the goal line after shaking off Jalen Ramsey — and at this point, we point out that you can’t ask a cornerback to cover someone for 10 seconds.
James Cook’s 1-yard touchdown run on the next play put the Dolphins behind 17-7 for the second week in a row.
The Dolphins’ next drive started well, with Achane going 17 yards through a big hole in the middle and gaining 9 yards on the next two plays.
But things went downhill from there: Ingold was stopped on third-and-1 for a 1-yard run, the Dolphins’ first failure on a third-and-short run this season.
On fourth-and-2 at Buffalo’s 45-yard line, Mike McDaniel made the right decision and went for it, but the play was wasted as Ed Oliver almost immediately outran left guard Robert Jones and pounced on Tua for a drive-ending sack.
Yes, things got even worse for the Dolphins on the next play when James Cook sprinted up the middle and then down the right sideline for a 49-yard touchdown that put the game up 24-7. David Long Jr., who had been playing really well earlier, ran into a three-man block for some reason and then Jordan Poyer took a bad angle so Cook easily got by him.
The Dolphins’ final offense of the first half was pretty odd, with just a few short passes and a whole bunch of Achane runs, coupled with a lack of urgency at the timeout. It was odd.
The Dolphins had to call their final timeout with the ball at Buffalo’s 23-yard line with 16 seconds left. The Dolphins did score a field goal to cap the drive, but that was little consolation as they went into halftime trailing 24-10.
The Dolphins got a much-needed stop on Buffalo’s first drive of the second half, although it was a needless 5 yards when Anthony Walker Jr. was penalized for moving too early on the kickoff, the first of the night that went into the end zone. That was the second time this season Walker committed that violation, and he needs to stop.
Chop Robinson and Zach Sieler applied pressure on Josh Allen from the midline on third and seventh attempts, forcing a missed throw and an incomplete pass.
The Dolphins began the second half with Lester Cotton at left guard because Robert Jones was out with a shoulder injury and Terron Armstead was soon replaced at left tackle by Kendall Lamm.
Achane was in action on the first four plays of the drive and also made up virtually the entire Dolphins offense that evening.
And then disaster struck when the Bills collapsed the left side of the Dolphins offensive line (Lamb and Cotton) and Tua tried to throw the ball out of bounds but didn’t have enough power, allowing Ja’Marcus Ingram to easily intercept the ball near the sideline and score a touchdown with an equally easy 30-yard return that brought the score to 31-10.
The Dolphins then went on a good drive, culminating in Tua’s 23-yard pass to Waddle, but the drive ended after Tagovailoa left the game with a concussion that overshadowed everything else that happened that terrible night.
The drive ended when backup QB Skylar Thompson was sacked on fourth and goal from the 8-yard line after Von Miller easily got past Austin Jackson.
From the beginning of the fourth quarter, it was garbage time because the outcome was never in question.
Achane had to work harder and harder as the Dolphins continued to run a conservative game plan against a Buffalo defense that played very loose on defense to ensure they couldn’t be beaten out of the gate like Jacksonville.
Achane ended up with 165 yards rushing and a touchdown, but the Bills were content with the Dolphins letting him do that damage.
What was interesting was seeing Hill and Waddle both on the bench midway through the fourth quarter when the Dolphins were trailing 31-10, a sign that Miami had already given up.
Given the score and the fact that Thompson was in the game, the fourth quarter honestly had the feel of a warm-up game.
The fact that the Dolphins were unsuccessful after their last drive into the red zone did not matter.
The game ended after Buffalo gained a first down and news came that Tua was in the locker room with his family.
Just a few more words to describe how terrible this night was on every level.
