The Dolphins were without two of their key defensive pieces Sunday. And it showed.

No Taco Charlton and Raekwon McMillan meant the Miami Dolphins defensive was in for a challenge against the Bills.

That was evident in Sunday’s 37-20 loss at Hard Rock Stadium.

The Bills moved the ball with ease for much of the game, scoring on each of their first four offensive possessions.

McMillan has played in all nine games this season and has logged 55 tackles and a pass defensed. And without Charlton, Miami’s top defensive tackle who was inactive with an elbow injury, the Dolphins struggled to get pressure on Josh Allen.

The Bills quarterback was not sacked, and he totaled 313 yards (including a season-high 56 rushing yards) with four touchdowns.

“Obviously Taco has done really well for us this year,” Dolphins rookie defensive tackle Christian Wilkins. “… He is one of our brothers. We love him and have respect for his game, but it shouldn’t matter if a guy is out or not. We’ve still got to play, still got to be pros and step up. The guys have to step up and everyone is capable. So everyone still has to do their job.”

Added Dolphins head coach Brian Flores after the game: “We’ve got to play better. I would say from tackling to missed tackles to penalties, not protecting inside out from a protection standpoint in the pass game, dropped balls. You’re not going to win in this league playing that way. It’s something we’ve talked about really the entire year.”

A Dolphins defense that seemed to be figuring things out the past two weeks looked lost early and often against the Bills, and missed tackles led to big plays and scores, including one in the second quarter that led to a touchdown by Bills tight end Dawson Knox.

“They made us miss on a couple of tackles,” Flores said, “but we talked about tackling and tackling technique, fundamentals. We’ve got to do a good job, obviously. That’s always number one defensively. We just didn’t do a good enough job. I think we overcame some of those mistakes early and had some opportunities, specifically in the second quarter, and then we – they made more plays than we did.”

In addition to a relatively non-existent pass rush, the Dolphins struggled to contain receiver John Brown, who had nine receptions for a season-high 137 yards. He also caught two touchdown passes, including one for 40 yards.

“I don’t know what exactly it was that we didn’t do,” Wilkins said. “It’s something we have to watch the tape to really figure out as to what happened and what is going on because clearly we didn’t play well enough to win today. But we will do what we do every week, get back to the drawing board, keep grinding and try to do better next week.”