Buffalo Bills Embarrass Miami Dolphins

If fans were thinking the Miami Dolphins would use last weeks huge win over New England to fire up their team to beat the Buffalo Bills, they were sorely mistaken. The Dolphins were never in the game for practical purposes. Sure they were within three points at one point, six another, 14 at one point as well but the reality of the game dictated that Miami was not ready for this game.

The Dolphins surrendered 29 points to an underrated Buffalo Bills team and produced only 10 points.

Miami opened the game with a stellar 62 yards of offense in the first half. While only being down six points at the half, Miami failed to produce. With two minutes and the ball to end the first half, Miami head coach Joe Philbin opted to run the clock out with consecutive runs instead of trying to score. They had the ball to start the 2nd half. It was a wasted two minutes and it was a theme that permeated the teams game plan throughout the day.

After finally putting to be the first half the Dolphins opened the 2nd half with a long drive that ended with a field goal but as the day had thus far dictated the Bills returned the following kick-off for a 102 yard touchdown. The Bills simply played a far better game than Miami. E.J. Manuel quarterbacked the Bills offense not with high yardage plays but with high percentage completion plays. He played safe and it worked. The Bills offensive line kept Miami’s pass rush at bay the entire day. Meanwhile the same could not be said for Miami’s offensive line.

The Dolphins offensive line surrendered four sacks on the day and Ryan Tannehill managed to have four passes knocked down at the line of scrimmage. While Tannehill spent most of his day under some pressure his passes were not on target and his accuracy was atrocious for most of the afternoon. He also missed deep once again to Mike Wallace and the team opted to not try the deep ball again until the game was out of reach..and Brian Hartline dropped a very catchable catch. Ryan Tannehill capped a meaningless final drive with an interception with 11 seconds left in the game.

Early in the game the Dolphins lost Knowshon Moreno to a bad arm injury that appeared to possibly be a broken wrist or possible ligament damage. There is no word on his condition at the time of this writing.  The Dolphins would lose Lamar Miller later to a lower leg injury but that didn’t appear to be serious.

The bright spot today was the play of Mike Wallace who once again showed a new physical attitude and made an amazing one handed touchdown catch in tight coverage. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough and the disconnect between Wallace and Tannehill outside of 15 yards is becoming a glaring issue for the team.

Miami was simply all over the place, special teams gave up a blocked punt, a muffed punt, and surrendered a kick-off return touchdown. The defense did well enough to hold the Bills down but the wear and ineffectiveness of the Dolphins offense kept them out there too long and eventually the Bills ran away with the game.

The Dolphins opted for a finesse game against a very physical team in the Bills who pounded the Dolphins on both sides of the ball and it wasn’t made easier by the raucous Bills fans in attendance who made cadence impossible. The loss knocks the Dolphins to 1-1 on the season. The Bills will move to 2-0 while New England moves to 1-1 with a victory over the Minnesota Vikings.

Miami will head home for a week three game against the Kansas City Chiefs and try to regroup. The overall performance was sluggish and it showed in the score.