The Buffalo Bills defeated the Miami Dolphins by a score of 31 to 10 in front of 65,601 people on Thursday night at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Florida. With Miami’s 351 yards to Buffalo’s 247, the 104-yard difference might make you wonder how the Bills were able to pull this one off.
This game was one of old-school, smash-mouth style football, and timely turnovers. Buffalo scored off the bat with Josh Allen and a 17-yard pass to James Cook to go up 7-0 with the extra point.
Tua Tagovailoa then brought Miami back up to 7-7 when he threw a 5-yard pass with the extra point to De’Von Achane with only three minutes and twenty-one left in the first quarter.
Buffalo was giving up yard after yard just like last week against Arizona, and once again this game looked like it was going to be a tough one to pull out. But the Bills brought it back in the second quarter and put up 17 straight points.
Tyler Bass kicked a field goal off 43 yards and James Cook scored twice on runs of 1 yard and 49 yards to put the Bills up 24-7.
Just before halftime, Miami seemed to mismanage the clock and came away with just a 34-yard field goal by Jason Sanders with only .04 seconds left before halftime to make the score 24-10.
Linebacker Terrell Bernard went down early in the 1st half with a pectoral injury. Baylon Spector filled in for Bernard and did an excellent job with 7 tackles and 3 assists. The Bills picked off Tua Tagovailoa in the 3rd quarter for a 31-yard interception return by Ja’Marcus Ingram – his second of the game – putting the Bills up 31-10 after the extra point.
While this would mark the end of the scoring for the game, the Bills’ defense continued to wreak havoc on the Dolphins with Damar Hamlin knocking Tua Tagovailoa out of the game with a concussion. The Dolphins brought Skylar Thompson in to finish the game as quarterback.
In the end, the Bills played a near-perfect game. They had no turnovers, no sacks, and only one penalty for five yards. This was a hard-fought game in scorching heat for a night game with the temperature being 84 degrees at kickoff.
It’s easy to see a trend starting this year after week one and Thursday’s game. Last week there were only two 300-plus-yard passers and several running backs carrying the ball over 20 times. Is old-school football coming back with ground and pound? The Bills seemed to take that approach.
The Bills will get a well-earned rest as their next game isn’t until Monday, September 23rd against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The game is at home in Orchard Park at Highmark Stadium with kickoff at 7:30.