Tag: dolphins bills

How can the Bills stop the Dolphins’ ridiculous offense?

The Miami Dolphins’ offense is an unstoppable juggernaut that the Buffalo Bills must try to stop. Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar detail how the Bills can pull it off.

The Buffalo Bills are coming off a 37-3 waxing of the Washington Commanders in which they became the first NFL team since the 1985 Dallas Cowboys to put up nine sacks and four interceptions in a single game.

But by Monday morning, head coach Sean McDermott had thrown those good feelings right out the window, and for good reason. Buffalo must now deal with a Miami Dolphins offense that set all kinds of records in its preposterous 70-20 thrashing of the Denver Broncos.

So, as well as McDermott’s defense is playing, there’s no time for pats on the back.

“It gets shorter and shorter or smaller and smaller, that window, right? And in particular, when you got a team that put up 70 points, I don’t think I’ve seen that in my NFL career the entire time,” McDermott said Monday morning. “So they’re very explosive,”

In this week’s “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” the guys talked at length about the challenges presented by Miami’s offense, and how the Bills can best deal with them.

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You can watch this week’s entire “Xs and Os with Greg Cosell and Doug Farrar,” featuring all of Week 4’s biggest matchups, right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to the “Xs and Os” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

Now, let’s get into how the Bills can ostensibly stop this bullet train.

Dolphins’ Thomas Morstead performs the ultra-rare butt punt

The Dolphins barely beat the Bills on Sunday, despite Thomas Morstead’s late-game butt punt.

We all remember what happened to then-New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez on November 22, 2012. The Jets were waylaid by the Patriots, 49-19, and Sanchez became a forever meme by running into right guard Brandon Moore with his face, and fumbling the ball.

On Sunday, the Miami Dolphins barely beat the Buffalo Bills, 21-19, in a game that propelled Miami to 3-0 and first place in the AFC East. The win did not come without its challenges. With 1:37 left in the game, the Dolphins were backed up in their own end zone, and veteran punter Thomas Morstead — who had suffered just one blocked punt in his 15-year NFL career — was just trying to avoid a second career block that would allow the Bills to jump on the ball in the end zone for a game-winning touchdown.

Morstead got the punt off, and the ball wasn’t blocked by any Bills player — it was blocked by the butt of teammate Blake Ferguson.

The ball went out of the end zone, giving the Bills a safety and two points, but that was not enough. On Buffalo’s subsequent drive, they progressed to their own 47-yard line before time ran out as Josh Allen tried to get under center to spike the ball and stop the clock.

So, a win for the Dolphins, and a win for anyone who was looking for an expansion of the “Butt-whatever” theme in the National Football League.

To Sanchez’ credit, he’s got a great sense of humor about the whole thing.

How the Bills can stop the Dolphins’ explosive passing game

The Buffalo Bills’ defense has quite the challenge this Sunday: Stop the Miami Dolphins’ ridiculous passing game. Here’s how the Bills can do it.

It is unclear what the Buffalo Bills collectively thought when they first saw their 2022 regular-season schedule, with the Miami Dolphins as their Week 3 matchup. As Buffalo beat its AFC East rival in both games last season by combined scores of 61-11, perhaps there wasn’t much thought about it at all.

Now, the Bills know exactly what they’ll be facing this Sunday in what is unquestionably the game of the week. The 2-0 Dolphins, under new head coach and offensive shot-caller Mike McDaniel, are just about as hot as the 2-0 Bills after their amazing game against the Baltimore Ravens in which Miami overcame a 21-point halftime deficit to beat Baltimore, 42-38.

The stats in that game were pretty impressive for McDaniel’s team. According to ESPN Stats & Info, it was the first time in 12 years a team has come back from a 21-point deficit in the fourth quarter. Since 2011, NFL teams are 0-711 when trailing by at least 21 points in the fourth quarter. And per NFL Research, the Dolphins were the first team in NFL history to have a player record 400+ passing yards and 5+ passing TDs (quarterback Tua Tagovailoa) in the same game as two teammates recording 170+ receiving yards and 2+ receiving touchdowns (receivers Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill).

Tagovailoa’s six passing touchdowns tied a franchise record and was the most by any NFL quarterback since Patrick Mahomes had six touchdown passes on Nov. 19, 2018 against the Los Angeles Rams.

It got to the point where McDaniel and Tagovailoa were able to quickly communicate on what the head coach called the “F— it” play, which became one of Hill’s two deep touchdowns. 

The Dolphins’ ‘F— it” play vs. the Ravens typified their explosive potential

The Bills have been just as much about great defense as great offense this season (they rank first in Defensive DVOA, while the Dolphins rank second in Offensive DVOA behind the Ravens), but head coach Sean McDermott is well aware of the test his team faces.

“He’s a once in a lifetime player with his speed, and his ability to go after the contested catch,” McDermott said of Hill this week. “They’ve got tremendous speed on offense. They put up points, they do a great job scheme-wise, and Mike does a great job putting them in positions to be successful. So, it’ll be a big challenge for us.”

It’s likely that the matchup between Buffalo’s explosive offense and Miami’s average defense will once again have the Dolphins playing catchup. Here’s how the Bills can prevent what happened to the Ravens happening to them.

All advanced metrics courtesy of Sports Info Solutions, Pro Football Focus, and Football Outsiders unless otherwise indicated).