Football is the ultimate team game, but on Saturday night in Buffalo
quarterback Josh Allen virtually singlehandedly led the Bills to a 32-29
victory over the Miami Dolphins. Allen accounted for 381 of Buffalo’s
446 total yards. And for good measure he threw 4 touchdown passes
and rushed for a 2-point conversion.
All game long Allen did what was needed as he threw for 304 yards and
rushed for another 77. He was on the move for much of the night
rolling left or right to avoid the Dolphins pass rush and making throws
on the run that very few quarterbacks in the NFL can make.
Allen’s performance mirrored his performance from week 3 against the
Dolphins when he threw for 400 yards and 2 touchdowns while running
for 47 yards. The big difference that week being that Miami found a
way to pull out a 21-19 victory.
Nothing against Dolphins’ QB Tua Tagovailoa, who threw for 230 yards
with 2 touchdowns on Saturday, but he will never be Josh Allen. He just
doesn’t have the size, arm strength and mobility that Allen does.
He also doesn’t have the “It factor” playmaking ability that Allen
possesses. However, that can also be said about 85% of the other
starting quarterbacks in the NFL, so this isn’t meant as a shot at Tua,
who has played well this season.
Allen also closely resembles LA Chargers QB Justin Herbert, who is of
similar size, arm strength and mobility. Miami saw Herbert 1 st hand last
week as he accounted for 375 of the Chargers 432 total yards in Los
Angeles’ 23-17 win over Miami.
In fact Miami’s defense has struggled against strong armed, mobile
quarterbacks all season. The Ravens Lamar Jackson had 437 total yards
while accounting for 4 touchdowns in week 2 and the Bears Justin
Fields had 301 total yards with 4 TDs in week 9.
Is Tua a good enough playmaker to beat the likes of Allen, Herbert, and
Jackson on a regular basis? Not to mention the Chiefs’ Patrick
Mohomes and the Bengals Joe Burrow. I mention those 5 quarterbacks
as they are all in the AFC and any playoff run Miami hopes to make this
season or in future years will require them to run the gauntlet against
those elite quarterbacks.
If Miami is going to be successful against teams like that, Tua will need
to continue to improve. But he can’t do it by himself. The Dolphins
running game and defense will also need to get better.
In defense of Miami’s defense, it has to be noted that they have been
playing with a banged up secondary all season. Cornerback Byron Jones
has yet to play a game this year as he has been on the PUP list all
season while cornerback Nik Needham and safety Brandon Jones are
out for the season with injuries. Miami also played Saturday without
defensive backs Eric Rowe and Elijah Campbell.
Miami’s secondary has played admirably this season in light of the
extensive injury list, but it is tough to slow down the likes of Allen,
Herbert, Mohomes, Jackson and Burrow when having to use several 2 nd
and 3 rd team defenders.
Other takeaways from the Bills game are:
- Weather wasn’t much of a factor as the wind and snow forecasted
for the game never really materialized. It was 29 degrees at game
time, though, so Miami put to rest the fears that they couldn’t
play in cold weather. Although the Dolphins didn’t win, they were
resilient, played hard and with confidence. They just couldn’t find
a way to slow down Josh Allen.
- Miami did find its running game, though, as they rushed 25 times
for 188 yards. Raheem Mostert ran for 136 yards on 17 carries
while Salvon Ahmed gained 43 yards on 6 carries with 1
touchdown. - Miami’s dynamic receiving duo of Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle
had another solid week. Hill caught 9 passes for 69 yards and a
touchdown while Waddle had 114 yards on 3 catches with 1 TD. - Bills tight-end Dawson Knox had 6 receptions for 98 yards and a
touchdown. - The overall game stats were fairly even as Buffalo had 446 total
yards vs. 405 for Miami. Both teams had 51 yards in penalties with
time of possession basically even with Miami having the ball for
30:07 vs. 29:53 for Buffalo. - Jason Sanders kicked 3 field goals for Miami, but it is challenging
to beat a team as good as Buffalo when you settle for field goals 3
times. Convert one of those field goals into a touchdown and
Miami would have picked up a “W”. - In the 2 nd half a roughing the punter penalty vs. the Bills gave
Miami a 1 st down in Bills territory with the Dolphins subsequent
drive resulting in a 20-yard touchdown pass to Hill. - Jaelan Phillips had a strip sack of Allen that led to one of Sanders’
field goals in the 2 nd half that put Miami up 29-21 with 11:56 left in
the game. - Buffalo had 5 scoring drives of at least 75 yards including the
game winning drive of 86 yards that consumed the final 5:56 of
the game leading to Tyler Bass’ game winning 25-yard field goal.
Week 16 brings the Dolphins back to Miami for a Christmas day date
with Aaron Rodgers and the Packers. Weeks 17 and 18 find Miami at
New England and home vs. the Jets.
The Dolphins are now 8-6 and will need to win at least 2 of their final 3
games to make the playoffs. The good news is they won’t being facing a
quarterback the caliber of Allen or Herbert the rest of the season, but
all 3 games will be a challenge with the Patriots and Jets possessing 2 of
the better defenses in the league.
