How the Bills’ defense put Dolphins down: ‘Foaming at the mouth, ears pinned back’

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The Miami Dolphins took one right in the blowhole.

They rolled into Highmark Stadium with their pinball offense, darting all over the backfield with pre-snap motion and most recently putting the Denver Broncos on tilt with 70 points that easily could have been 80 had they tried the entire game.

Whoo, these Dolphins have been feeling it. Some got off the bus wearing T-shirts featuring the deep-thought emoji — chin in hand, arched eyebrow, a tad confused — over the Bills being favored to win Sunday.

Midway through the fourth quarter, game well in hand, the Bills defense kept jumping offsides because they couldn’t wait to ravage Tua Tagovailoa some more.

“That’s just guys foaming at the mouth, ears pinned back, can’t wait to rush,” Buffalo defensive end A.J. Epenesa said.

Confused? Yeah, Miami must’ve been while Buffalo reasserted itself with a 48-20 victory.

Tagovailoa, he of the lickety-split trigger and previously clean uniform, ran out of answers. He was flawless through the first quarter, but then the Bills — without injured All-Pro safety Jordan Poyer — disturbed him and jolted him and caught him and tricked him.

He’d been sacked once and hit merely five times through three games. Then, Buffalo recorded four sacks and nine quarterback hits. Greg Rousseau caught him twice. Tagovailoa fumbled once and botched a snap.

One play after the Bills tallied yet another QB hit, he sailed a pass to safety Micah Hyde with 5:03 left in the third quarter. Four plays later, Josh Allen spotted Stefon Diggs in the end zone for their third touchdown connection.

You can run, but you can’t HYDE!

: @CBS | @paramountplus pic.twitter.com/abQNrGfnNq

— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) October 1, 2023

“When you see a quarterback not getting hit and getting the ball out quick,” said Bills defensive tackle DaQuan Jones, “the main thing is not getting frustrated. Early on, I’ll be a fool to say we weren’t. The ball was coming out so quick.

“We started getting a couple hits on him in the second quarter. After that, we started rolling. … We knew we could get there if we kept being patient.”

Both defenses buckled up for a doozy. At the start of the second quarter, neither quarterback had thrown an incomplete pass. The offenses were averaging about 9 yards per play and had combined for 17 first downs over the first 28 plays. Each team had two possessions. The score was tied at 14.

Allen didn’t throw an incomplete pass until 4:25 into the second quarter, but Buffalo made the score 21-14 after its third possession.

Tagovailoa plays a stately game when he’s calm. He completed his first seven attempts. As his protection and poise eroded, however, whatever stress Buffalo felt about restraining Miami’s record-breaking offense lessened.

“They got us a little early on, but nobody freaked out,” Bills middle linebacker Terrel Bernard said.

“Weathering the storm, most offenses come in with a script and have some scheme stuff that’s going to give you some problems. We did a good job of staying together and sticking to the plan.”

No, the Bills didn’t quit, unlike the Broncos’ defense a week earlier.

On the Dolphins’ third series, they began to sputter: an illegal formation, an Epenesa deflected pass, a false start, a Raheem Mostert fumble and the game’s first punt.

By halftime, Allen had thrown two touchdowns to Diggs, including a magnificent catch-and-spin away from Dolphins defensive backs Kader Kohou and Brandon Jones for a 55-yard jaunt, and Tyler Bass added a 53-yard field goal for a 31-14 lead.

The Highmark Stadium crowd smelled the Dolphins bleeding in the water.

“I don’t know how, in our world, it can get much louder,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “It sounded like jet engines out there.”

McDermott estimated 40 percent of the defensive calls were relayed through hand signals because Bernard couldn’t hear the headset inside his helmet.

Didn’t matter. The pressure kept accumulating on Tagovailoa. Through the first half, NFL Next Gen Stats charted Buffalo as pressuring 42.1 percent of Tagovailoa’s dropbacks, nearly double the rate he faced through Miami’s first three games. Leonard Floyd generated pressure on five of 11 opportunities and recorded a pair of QB hits.

“He didn’t have time to sit back there and try to pick us apart,” Bernard said.

Already missing starting center Connor Williams, the Dolphins lost four-time Pro Bowl left tackle Terron Armstead late in the second quarter.

But the Bills’ defense got short-handed, too. Already down Poyer, they temporarily lost cornerback Christian Benford and defensive tackle Ed Oliver.

The worst development was top cornerback Tre’Davious White suffering an Achilles injury at the end of the third quarter. White flung his helmet 20 yards and punched the turf in agony after non-contact injury with 39 seconds left in the third quarter. McDermott got emotional while speaking about White, who suffered a season-ending knee injury on Thanksgiving 2021.

“It’s super-devastating for him,” Bernard said. “He works his ass off every single day. I’m upset for him, but we’re a close group. We’re all going to be there for him.”

The Dolphins couldn’t exploit White’s absence either.

Speed demon Tyreek Hill was limited to three catches for 38 yards. Jaylen Waddle, back from a concussion, had four receptions for 46 yards. Neither found the end zone. Rookie running back De’Von Achane did most of the damage with eight carries for 101 yards and two TDs.

The Bills are about to get veteran edge rusher Von Miller back. Miller, who has been on the physically unable to perform list while rehabbing a reconstructed knee, will return to practice this week and could be cleared to play Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars in London.

Not that the Bills have needed Miller much so far.

“We had nine sacks last week,” Rousseau said, “but we still have to come to the game, put our pads on, put our pants on and go do the same thing again. Every week kind of has its own breath of life. You’ve got to go out there and renew it every single week.”

Even so, Sunday’s matchup offered added significance.

The Dolphins could have taken a two-game lead over the Bills in the AFC East standings. Instead, the Bills not only reeled them back to the pack, but also reminded everyone the division still goes through Orchard Park.

“They put up 70 last week; 20’s a big difference,” Oliver said. “Something we were doing was right. I’m not technically sure what we did right, but I’m pretty sure we did a lot of good things.”

(Photo: Al Diaz / Miami Herald / Tribune News Service via Getty Images)