The encouraging run is over. Dolphins go back to old ways in noncompetitive loss to Bills
The day — and maybe even the season — could all be summed up in two plays late in the second quarter. The Miami Dolphins had just scored a touchdown to pull within nine of the Buffalo Bills and Brian Flores sprung a surprise onside kick on the Buffalo Bills. He was playing to win and the Dolphins were playing hard. Jason Sanders recovered his own kick and Miami had a chance to trim the deficit even more before halftime.
Ryan Fitzpatrick and Allen Hurns nearly did it, too. The quarterback connected with the wide receiver on a deep post, but Hurns simply dropped it after he started running. A promising moment vanished Sunday. The Bills ended the Dolphins surprisingly invigorating two-game winning streak with a 37-20 win in Miami Gardens.
“It’s basically a long foul ball. That’s really what it boils down to,” coach Brian Flores said. “We have to take advantage of those opportunities. Good teams take advantage of them and today we weren’t that.”
It’s debatable whether the Dolphins (2-8) have actually been a good team at all this season, but they were at least a better one for the last month. Miami had led at halftime in four straight games before Sunday. The Dolphins had won twice in a row and not lost by more than two scores since September. In their two straight wins they simply outplayed their opponents.
They reverted back to early-season form Sunday, though. Their offense was mostly nonexistent until garbage time. Their defense was almost entirely ineffective. Miami dug an early 13-0 hole and never pulled closer than nine to suffer its most lopsided defeat since a 20-point loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in September.
“We took a little step back today,” center Daniel Kilgore said. “We’ve got to fix the problems and obviously there was a lot of them today.”
The Dolphins came close to threatening Buffalo (7-3) in the the fourth quarter. Jakeem Grant ran for a touchdown after a direct snap to running back Kalen Ballage to trim the Bills’ lead to 30-20. Miami lined up in a bunch formation for the two-point conversion and tossed a shovel pass to Hurns, who got stuffed at 1-yard line. Buffalo clinged to its two-score lead with 14:35 remaining and answered with an eight-play, 62-yard touchdown drive. The Dolphins turned the ball over on downs on the next possessions and most of the Miami fans among the 64,187 at Hard Rock Stadium streamed to the exits with more than eight minutes to go.
All afternoon, there were moments of promise for the Dolphins, sort of like the ones they strung together in the previous five games. Fitzpatrick went 32 of 45 for a season-high 323 yards and wide receiver DeVante Parker caught seven passes for a career-high 135 yards, including two catches for 45-plus yards. The successful onside kick was only the second in the NFL this season. Grant even followed up Hurns’ fumble with a kick-return touchdown to keep Buffalo from running away.
All these momentary successes were wiped away by whatever followed almost immediately. A 50-yard catch by Parker late in the second quarter set up a touchdown and eventually the successful onside kick, but Miami fumbled away the ball on the first play after the recovery. Grant’s return sent the Dolphins into halftime down only 23-16, but Miami quickly punted on its first drive of the half and the Bills answered with a touchdown to push the lead back to 30-16.
The Dolphins finished with only 303 yards of offense — including 117 on the final two garbage-time drives — and allowed 424. Miami’s offensive line gave up seven sacks and its defensive line didn’t sack Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen once. At one point, the Bills were outgaining the Dolphins, 212-11.
“We came into this game thinking the outcome was going to be better,” Fitzpatrick said. “I thought we’d come in and be more competitive.”
A day before its winning streak ended, Miami’s future became even cloudier. Star Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, one of the reason teams decided to tank this season, suffered a devastating hip injury.
If the season ended Sunday, the Dolphins would have the No. 4 pick of the 2020 NFL Draft behind the winless Cincinnati Bengals, the one-win Washington Redskins and the two-win New York Giants. It might be high enough to land Tagovailoa, but now the bigger question is on his end. Will he be healthy enough to be Miami’s quarterback of the future?
This story was originally published November 17, 2019 at 4:25 PM.
