The Miami Dolphins sit atop the AFC with a perfect 3-0 record. Here are 10 observations from Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills.
Don’t look now, but your Miami Dolphins are 3-0 and sit atop the AFC standings as the last remaining unbeaten team in the conference. They have made it through a brutal stretch of their schedule practically unscathed, with one of the league’s softest schedules looming in the coming weeks.
It wasn’t the prettiest of wins, and they didn’t put up the gaudy statistics that they did last week against the Ravens, but Miami was able to beat Buffalo for the first time in 8 tries, and now have a victory and full game lead over the team that many consider to be the best in the NFL. The season is far from over, but there is plenty of reason for fans in South Florida to be excited.
Here are ten observations from Sunday’s game between the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills:
1. If the crowd can be the 12th Man, the sun can be the 13th
A solid portion of it was Bills fans, but there was a raucous crowd inside Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday, and you could hear and feel their energy as the game tightened up in the 4th quarter. But as great and as loud as the fans were, the sun and the heat proved to be even more important.
It seemed as though there was a Bills player laying on the ground after every play in the closing minutes, as the heat and fatigue began to affect their bodies and performance. Stefon Diggs seemed to miss every other play during the final two drives for Buffalo as he dealt with cramps on the sideline, and there was even an offensive lineman whose official injury listing was “heat sickness”.
Miami Dolphins Week 3 Observations
2. Jevon Holland made the plays he needed to
He hasn’t been as quiet as fellow second-year player Jaelan Phillips, but Jevon Holland hadn’t been making quite the impact that we thought he would, apart from the interception in Week 1. But he bounced back in a big way against the Bills, notching 10 total tackles to go along with 1.5 sacks and a pass defended.
Holland has hopes of becoming an All-Pro safety in Miami’s secondary, and he will get there in no time if he has games like he had against the Bills on Sunday.
3. Jaelan Phillips is still frustratingly streaky
I had it in my mind that I would be keeping a close eye on Jaelan Phillips during Sunday’s game, and he frustrated the heck out of me. He was practically invisible on the pass rush in the first half, and had a missed open field tackle in the 4th quarter that would have gone a long way in sealing the victory.
He finished with a nice tackle for loss and had a defended pass in the closing minutes that was nearly the game clincher, but it seems as though Phillips’ issues with streakiness have yet to be addressed.
Miami Dolphins Week 3 Observations
4. Open field tackling needs help
Tackling Josh Allen is hard, and he tends to prove this most often against the Dolphins. It continued to be true on Sunday as Allen led the Bills in rushing yards, and did so both by breaking tackles and juking defenders with regularity.
But it wasn’t just Allen. Ball carriers for the Bills were slipping out of the arms of the defense all afternoon, often extending drives and keeping the Dolphins’ defense on the field. Miami was able to make some big stops in the 4th quarter to redeem themselves, but they shouldn’t have been in position to give up so many third-down conversions.
5. Dolphins still need an “Allen Spy”
He didn’t play in this game, and in fact hasn’t yet made his NFL debut, but Channing Tindall could prove to be a key piece in future matchups with Buffalo.
Tindall has the speed and chase-down ability to be a spy for mobile quarterbacks, and given the success of Josh Allen on his scrambles on Sunday, the Dolphins will likely need the rookie linebacker when these two teams meet again in December.
There were more than a few plays during the game when I found myself wishing Tindall was out there to help.
Miami Dolphins Week 3 Observations
6. McDaniel and the Dolphins cleaned up the penalties
A week after they had an ugly showing in the penalty and dumb mistake department, coach McDaniel showed that he had his team more prepared to be disciplined against the Bills. Miami had just 4 penalties for a total of 20 yards, and finished the game with 0 turnovers.
If you’re wondering how a team can be out-gained like the Dolphins were and still be victorious, it is by playing mostly mistake-free football.
7. 3rd down defense was rough
The numbers didn’t quite reflect it, but it seemed like the Bills were converting every crucial third down that they needed to.
Buffalo finished 11 for 18 officially, but Miami had a chance to shut down drives on third down on more than a handful of occasions. It was this that contributed to the Bills having long, sustained drives of 10, 14, 20, and 17 plays and owning the time of possession battle by a huge margin.
The Bills have a high-powered offense, but getting beaten repeatedly on long third-down plays is not a recipe for success in the NFL.
8. The Miami Dolphins need to protect Tua Tagovailoa at all costs
Whether they were trolling or not, there was a small contingency of Dolphins fans who believed that Teddy Bridgewater was the best quarterback on the team’s roster during the preseason, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a single one of them remaining.
Bridgewater was inserted into the game with Tagovailoa in the locker room with a head injury, and while it was a small sample size, the results were not good. Keeping Tua upright and healthy (and hopefully away from late, dirty hits) will be essential for the success of the offense going forward.
Miami Dolphins Week 3 Observations
9. Dolphins got doubled up in many statistics…and won
Speaking of time of possession, what an anomaly this game was in that regard. Thanks to those extended drives by Buffalo, they were able to double up the Dolphins by possessing the ball for over 40 minutes, keeping Miami’s defense on the field for a vast majority of the day. The Bills ran 90 offensive plays to the Dolphins’ 39, which led to them leading the yardage battle by 285 on the day.
But it was the Dolphins resilience and key defensive plays that kept them in the ball game, and was eventually enough to pick up the victory despite the lopsided numbers.
10. Mike McDaniel shows his cojones…again.
Rookie head coaches generally go through some growing pains, but the only ones that Mike McDaniel is experiencing are ones that he’ll need a wheelbarrow for.
With 11:38 left in the game and the Dolphins down by 3, a series of miscues pushed them out of field goal range and their offense was facing a 3rd and 22 from just inside their own territory. Instead of trying to find a receiver underneath in order to get back in to range for Jason Sanders, Mike McDaniel dialed up a long ball. The result was the biggest play of the day for Miami, a 45-yard completion to Jaylen Waddle that ended up inside the Buffalo 10-yard line. The Dolphins would score three plays later.
Cojones grandes.