The Buffalo Bills bounced back from their opening week loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in a big way.
The Bills dominated the Miami Dolphins on Sunday with a 35-0 win at Hard Rock Stadium, moving Buffalo to 1-1 early in the 2021 season.
That means we get to start with the Arrows Up for the first time this year:
ARROW UP:
SHUTOUT!
It’s hard to get a shutout in the National Football League. Really hard.
The last time the Bills did earn a shutout was October of 2016 when they faced, ironically, quarterback Jacoby Brissett and the New England Patriots. Brissett was filling in for a suspended Tom Brady at the time.
It was a great job by the entire defense and their coaching staff.
Taron Johnson
There are a lot of defensive players I could put on the Arrow Up side of things after this one, but Johnson is one who definitely stood out.
The slot cornerback had four total tackles, one for a loss, a sack, a quarterback hurry, two pass breakups, and a forced fumble. He put in a full day’s work, and a great one at that.
Matt Milano
For the second week in a row, Milano turned in a dynamic performance.
Once again, he was all over the field, helping in a variety of ways. Milano finished the contest with five total tackles, two for a loss, a sack, two quarterback hurries, and a fumble recovery.
Greg Rousseau
In his return to South Florida and the stadium where he played college football, Rousseau collected his first two NFL sacks.
But that wasn’t all.
The 2021 first round pick finished with five total tackles, including two for a loss, and two quarterback hurries.
Critical down defense
I’m calling this because it includes both third and fourth downs, where the Dolphins combined to go just 8-for-22 (37%). Miami was 0-for-4 on fourth down.
216 yards allowed
It wasn’t just the shutout and no points allowed. The Bills defense allowed only a minuscule 216 total yards.
Six sacks
The Bills defense got after and harassed Dolphins quarterbacks all day. It didn’t matter if it was Tua Tagovailoa or Brissett, they sacked them a total of six times.
Five different players were in on the action, including Micah Hyde, Milano, Rousseau, Johnson, and Justin Zimmer.
Red zone defense
The Dolphins were inside the Bills' 20-yard line three different times. Not only did they not score any touchdowns, they failed to even kick a field goal. Miami went 0-for-3 in the red zone on the day.
Three takeaways
Two fumble recoveries and an interception for the defense. After failing to take the ball away at all last week, they turned that around in a big way on Sunday.
Red zone offense
After going 1-for-4 last week in the regular season opener, the Bills' red zone offense didn’t miss a beat on Sunday. The offense converted all four of their opportunities in the red zone into touchdowns.
Pass protection
Bills quarterback Josh Allen was sacked only once the entire game, and really wasn't pressured much inside the pocket. The offensive line did a great job one week after plenty of struggles in that department.
Devin Singletary
Once again, Singletary went for over six yards per-carry, finishing with 82 yards on 13 attempts (6.3 yards per-attempt). This included a 46-yard touchdown run on the Bills' second offensive play of the game.
The third-year running back now has a total of 24 carries for 154 yards, averaging 6.4 yards per-carry through two games.
Brian Daboll
It was a good bounce-back game for the Bills offensive coordinator, who did a great job of mixing up personnel usage and pass/run plays to keep the Dolphins defense off balance and maximize efficiency.
Isaiah McKenzie
McKenzie only returned two punts (he also fair caught two others), but one went for 20 yards and the other for 13 yards. That’s a great job of making sure the field doesn’t get totally flipped and setting up his own offense.
Zack Moss’ hard running
After Moss had an early fumble (see below), he did not see the field for quite a while. When he got back in, he made up for it by running over defenders and into the end zone two different times.
ARROW DOWN:
Josh Allen’s completion percentage
For an overall performance, Allen does not deserve an Arrow Down. He made some dynamic plays and throws, and led the offense to 35 points. It was not a bad game for him.
However, he still seemed a bit off, as far as accuracy and timing with some of his receivers. That resulted in him completing only 17-of-33 pass attempts for a completion percentage of 51.5%.
Zack Moss’ fumble
Moss deserves credit for how hard he ran later in the game, but he had a careless fumble early on after catching a pass from Allen, giving the ball to the Dolphins at the Bills' 42-yard line.
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