Bills put together as impressive a performance as possible: 6 reasons they dominated Miami

ORCHARD PARK - From early in the week, the vibe was pretty clear in the Buffalo Bills locker room, a steady beat of quiet and undeniable confidence as their showdown with the Miami Dolphins came into focus.

Sure, how could they not be impressed by the 70 points the Dolphins scored the week before against the hapless Denver Broncos. No doubt it was the story of the week in the NFL, an offensive explosion that was nearly unprecedented in the history of the NFL.

The Bills made sure to pay their respects and offer kudos for a job well done, but there was no doubt in their minds that things were going to be vastly different for Tua Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle and the rest of the Dolphins when they arrived at raucous Highmark Stadium.

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Man, was it ever. How does a squish-the-fish 48-20 blowout taste?

“When it comes to every opponent, we take in consideration what they've done in the past,” said defensive end A.J. Epenesa. “But we hold ourselves to a high standard and we go into every game with the expectation that we can win every game. So we never fear what anyone does.”

And so here we are again, the Bills owning the Dolphins as they have ever since Josh Allen entered the NFL in 2018, and right now, the Dolphins know that the AFC East still goes through Orchard Park until they or someone else can create a detour.

“I think the Buffalo Bills proved why they are the team that our whole division is trying to beat,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel conceded.

Here are my Sal’s Six Points:

1. Josh Allen was an absolute beast

We have seen the star quarterback do wondrous things the past three-plus years so this really wasn’t a surprise, but man, he was fantastic in a game where he knew he needed to be. How great was he? How about a perfect passer rating of 158.3, a first for him.

Allen completed all eight passes he attempted during the first two possessions, both of which ended in touchdowns including his 18-yard laser to Gabe Davis in the right corner of the end zone.

Miami answered both of those touchdowns, but Allen held serve on the third possession when he went 3-of-4 for 36 yards, the last an 11-yard TD pass to Stefon Diggs that made it 21-14. From there the Dolphins stopped answering, but Allen did not let up.

By day’s end he completed 21 of 25 for 320 yards and four TDs, three of those to Diggs. It was a sublime outing in which Allen became the second player in NFL history to have a game with at least 300 passing yards, four TD passes, one rushing, and a perfect rating. Aaron Rodgers is the only other, doing it back in 2019 for the Packers.

“Our thought process every time we touch the ball is to score, whether that be six or three,” Allen said, going out of his way, as is his thing these days, to be as vanilla as possible with the local media. “No turnovers today, which is great, but I still think there’s some things we can clean up.”

OK, maybe that’s true, but a perfect rating is a perfect rating.

2. Tre’Davious White’s injury deflated the victory

Fans have been wondering whatever happened to 2022 first-round pick Kaiir Elam, who has been a healthy scratch the first four weeks of the season. Well, that probably ends next Sunday in London, because with White going down, Elam will be getting a game day jersey.

Now, whether that means he’ll start is another matter because based on what has happened so far, one would assume that Dane Jackson, who has been White’s backup in the first four games, will elevate while Elam will slide in as CB3.

Regardless, the Bills’ secondary has taken a major hit, especially if safety Jordan Poyer — who missed the Miami game with a knee injury — remains sidelined.

“To see that today … it’s a damn shame and hopefully you guys keep him in your prayers because he means so much to this team,” center Mitch Morse said. “He does it for all the right reasons. This game means a lot to him and being a good teammate and being there for his teammates means a lot to him.”

3. Pass rush continued to eat

Tagovailoa had been sacked just once in his first 105 dropbacks during Miami’s 3-0 start, but the Bills got to him four times for 31 yards in losses, and they hit him on five other plays.

Part of the issue was the one-sided score in the second half as the Bills were loaded for bear up front. Also, the Dolphins started the game without center Connor Williams, then lost left tackle Terron Armstead in the second quarter, which weakened their line significantly. But bottom line, this Bills’ pass rush was very good and it comes from everyone up front.

In this game Greg Rousseau led the way with two sacks plus a batted down pass, and DaQuan Jones and Ed Oliver had sacks from the inside. Sacking Tua is not easy because he does such a great job of getting rid of the ball, but the key for the Bills was taking his first read away which they did frequently. Once that happens, he becomes a pretty ordinary passer.

“Ever since I came to the league, it’s always been a tough game,” Tua said of facing the Bills’ defense.

4. A quiet day for Miami’s speedsters

So much of the talk leading into this game was the unmatched speed of the Miami offense. Sean McDermott called it revolutionary earlier in the week. But it really didn’t factor into this game because the Bills defense muted Hill, Waddle, De’Von Achane and Raheem Mostert.

“They just do a really good job playing the things that they play, and they play really well,” Tagovailoa said. “I think they’ve done a great job on that side of the ball in mitigating big plays for us offensively.”

Hill had just three catches on five targets for 58 yards; Waddle had four on five targets for 46 yards and one of those was a lucky grab of a pass that had been tipped twice; Mostert rushed for only nine yards on seven carries; and Achane had the biggest play, a 55-yard run, but that came when the game was out of reach.

“Of course, we heard a lot about it,” said safety Micah Hyde, who had an interception and five tackles. “Watching the tape from last week, big play after big play after big play, after big play. And not just from the receivers, from the backs, the quarterback, from everybody.

"So we knew going into this game, ultimately we're a defense that tries not to give up big plays. Everybody can say that around the league, but we've been successful doing that since 2017.”

5. Stefon Diggs had a touchdown hat trick

Part of the reason why the Dolphins acquired All-Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey was to combat the Bills’ star wide receiver. But Ramsey is out with an injury and may not be back until December, meaning Sunday, they were ill-equipped to deal with Diggs who torched them for six catches, 120 yards and three TDs.

The Dolphins tried to play cornerback Kader Kohou on Diggs but that was just silly. Diggs drew a 43-yard pass interference penalty on Kohou in the second quarter that moved the ball to the Miami 20 and he caught an 11-yard TD pass moments later by finding space over the middle as Allen was avoiding pressure.

“I think there was a couple situations where I know Kader would like to have back,” McDaniel said. “But at the same time, I think there’s a lot of people that weren’t executing a lot of times late in the play so it’s a collective thing.”

Later in the second he beat Kohou on a sideline route, then broke his tackle as well as one by Brandon Jones and raced 55 yards for a touchdown that made it 28-14. Finally in the third quarter, he ran a beautiful route as he turned Kohou inside out, faking inside and then going out to get wide open for a 13-yard TD.

“Not so much that,” he said of the matchup advantage. “It was more so just executing. We talked about it during the week, certain plays. Then when they came up everybody getting on the same page. Josh throwing it around, big guys blocking, receivers catching. Everybody doing their job.”

6. Highmark Stadium was ferocious

Since their dominance of the AFC East began in 2020, the Bills have the highest winning percentage at home of any team in the league, and Sunday the sellout crowd of 70,881 brought its A game.

“You come here and play at their stadium, it makes it even tougher with their fans,” Tagovailoa said. “Their fans are great with how they get into the flow of the game. It was tough to hear numbers Mike had been telling me prior to the crowd noise, and the crowd noise was really loud.”

McDermott agreed and he went so far as to say, “Man, what an afternoon in Orchard Park, right? Western New York, the crowd. I’ve been in the league a long time and I don’t think I’ve heard a crowd that loud in my time in the NFL. Playoff games, whatever it is, that’s as loud as it gets. I don’t know that, in our world, it can get any louder. It sounded like jet engines out there. It really did. It was deafening. Amazing environment.”

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana and on Threads @salmaiorana1. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which will come out every Friday during training camp, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills vs Dolphins: Josh Allen has perfect performance, 5 other points