Any hope that the Miami Dolphins could make a realistic run at dethroning the defending AFC East champion Buffalo Bills appeared to come to an end on Sunday afternoon at Orchard Park.
Arguably, Mike McDaniel's club played its best game of the year, and it still wasn't enough to knock off Sean McDermott's team.
The 30-27 setback dropped the 'Fins to 2-6, and raised Buffalo's record to 7-2.
Josh Allen keyed the Bills' strong second half vs. Dolphins
So, what happened this time? After 30 minutes of play, McDaniel's club held Buffalo to 118 total yards (on 28 offensive plays) and a pair of field goals, and owned a 10-6 advantage at intermission. Bills quarterback Josh Aleen had thrown for only 79 yards, and was picked off once. Then came the second half.
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Allen connected on 13 of his 20 passes for 156 yards and three scores. The Bills totaled 24 points after intermission. Tyler Bass connected on a 61-yard field goal with five seconds to play to complete the season sweep.
Let's just take it back to 2018, when Allen entered the league as a first-round draft choice. Including Buffalo's 34-31 win over Miami in the 2022 wild-card playoffs, the Bills are now 13-2 vs. this AFC East rival. Sunday marked the 11th time in Allen's 15 clashes with the Dolphins that his team scored at least 30 points. All told, McDermott's club has averaged a brisk 32.7 points per outing during this 15-game stretch.
As for Allen himself, he's made a career of frustrating the Dolphins. In his 15 meetings, he's thrown for 4,089 yards and 40 touchdowns, compared to only 10 interceptions. He's also rushed for 667 yards and five TDs. There have been 12 fumbles (none on Sunday), four of those lost.
Add in the fact that Allen has never lost to the Dolphins in Orchard Park (8-0), a place Miami has actually dropped nine straight games dating back to McDermott's arrival in 2017. The seven-year signal-caller continues to be a problem the Dolphins have been unable to solve.