Orchard Park, N.Y. (WGR 550) - The Buffalo Bills came up with a very pivotal victory against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, 48-20, to take over the lead in the AFC East.
Here are my Arrows Up and Down from the contest:
ARROW UP:
Sean McDermott
The Bills head coach did a great job to prepare his team for what they knew would be a very tough opponent coming in, and also an extremely confident one.
He also had a terrific game plan on defense to bottle up the Dolphins.
Defensive adjustments
The Dolphins' first two drives: 14 plays, 142 yards, 10.14 yards per-play, 14 points.
The rest of the game: 44 plays, 251 yards, 5.7 yards per-play, six points.
By drive, after the first two touchdowns, Dolphins drives ended: Punt, punt, fumble, punt, touchdown, interception, downs, downs, downs.
Ken Dorsey
The Bills offensive coordinator had a terrific game plan to keep Miami off-balance, using plenty of personnel packages and motion.
Buffalo ended with 414 yards of offense, averaged 7.4 yards per-play, and scored 48 points.
The defense
The Bills defense did what many people questioned could be done by any team: Holding the high-flying Dolphins offense to just 20 points on the day.
After the first two drives, the Dolphins scored only six points the rest of the game.
The offensive start
The Bills scored touchdowns on their first three offensive drives, totaling 181 yards just in the three possessions.
QB - Josh Allen
Another game against the Dolphins, another tremendous performance from the Bills' starting quarterback.
Allen was on fire from the start of the game, starting 10-of-10 and finishing 21-of-25 (84%) for 320 yards, four touchdowns, and no interceptions.
He also ran for 17 yards and a score, accounting for five touchdowns on the day.
WR - Stefon Diggs
Diggs was Allen’s main man all day, grabbing six catches for 120 yards and three touchdowns. He had 107 yards in the first half alone.
DE - Greg Rousseau
Rousseau finished with three tackles, two sacks, two quarterback hurries, and a pass breakup.
Ed Oliver and DaQuan Jones
Oliver finished with three tackles, a sack, two tackles for loss, and a quarterback hurry. He made some key plays and tackles at critical times.
As for Jones, he added two tackles, a sack, and two quarterback hurries of his own.
Lack of big plays allowed
The Dolphins had only one play that went for longer than 23 yards.
Job on Tyreek Hill
The veteran Dolphins wide receiver, who leads the league in receiving yards, finished with just three catches for 58 yards.
Red zone offense
The Bills were 5-for-6 (83%) inside the Dolphins' red zone on Sunday, scoring touchdowns all but once.
First down improvement
Over the first three games, the Bills' offense under-performed on first down, putting themselves in tough situations. That wasn’t the case on Sunday.
The offense consistently stayed on schedule with solid first downs.
Third down offense and defense
Both teams had 10 third down chances. The Bills converted five times (50%), and held the Dolphins to only three conversions (30%).
Fourth down defense
Fourth downs were crucial in this game. The Dolphins went for three of them and were stopped each time, including two sacks by the Bills defense.
Four sacks
Coming into the game, Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was sacked only one time in the first three weeks. The Bills took him to the ground four different times.
K - Tyler Bass
Once again, Bass was perfect, connecting on both field goal attempts and all six extra point attempts.
Sam Martin and Siran Neal
When it was still just 21-14, the Bills punted from the Miami 46-yard line. Sam Martin placed it perfectly inside the 10-yard line, and Siran Neal caught it to down it at the Dolphins' six-yard line.
"Bills Mafia"
Bills fans came out in full force, and were incredibly loud all afternoon, making things even more difficult for the Dolphins offense.
ARROW DOWN:
First two defensive drives
The Dolphins marched right down the field on both of their first two drives. It looked like the Bills had no answer for them. They totaled 142 yards on just 14 plays, scoring two touchdowns.
7.1 yards per-run
The Bills came into the game as the 32nd-ranked team in the NFL in yards per-run allowed. That continued with the Dolphins running 19 times for 142 yards, an average of 7.1 per-rush.
Run game
The Bills didn’t run the ball very well overall, averaging just 3.6 yards a carry after totaling 104 yards on 29 runs.
Khalil Shakir drop
With the Bills up 28-14 in the second quarter and facing a 3rd-and-14, Allen threw a beautiful pass down the right sideline to Shakir, who had it go through his hands before almost grabbing it on his shoulder.
The drop led to a field goal instead of a 1st-and-goal situation.
Late getting out of huddle/timeouts
There were several times throughout the game when the Bills offense took too long in the huddle and were rushed to snap the ball. They even had to burn a timeout in the first quarter after having already used one earlier that drive, eating up two of their three timeouts before the second quarter.
