Dolphins Must Limit Mistakes to Take Leap into AFC Elite
One week after defeating one of the NFL’s premier teams, the Miami Dolphins fell to the upstart Buffalo Bills, 29-10.
The Bills’ induction of late owner Ralph Wilson Jr. to the team's Wall of Fame during a pregame ceremony provided the Bills with a significant home-field advantage. Facing the wave of emotion from the hostile crowd, the Dolphins squandered an opportunity to move into first place of the AFC East and dropped to 1-1 on the season.
For the Dolphins, everything that could’ve gone wrong seemingly did in the loss.
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On a day when the Dolphins mustered just 290 offensive yards on 74 plays, Miami couldn’t convert drives into points due to self-inflicted mistakes throughout the game.
The most glaring area of costly mistakes occurred on special teams, which has been a strong unit for the Dolphins in recent seasons. Just one week ago, Miami benefited from a blocked punt early in the game, providing the offense with short field position.
What a difference a week makes. In Week 2, it was Miami’s Damien Williams and Michael Thomas who missed the key block on punt coverage.
The early block gave the Bills terrific field position to start their drive and put immense pressure on the Dolphins defense to make a stop.
Unfortunately for Miami, when punter Brandon Fields was able to get off a punt, the results weren’t good. Just one season after finishing second in the NFL in net yards per punt, per Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Fields shanked two punts. One punt went for 33 yards, and the second shank traveled just 29.
The result was devastating, as the Bills were able to log over 28 minutes of possession time despite totaling just 13 first downs. The Dolphins defense held Buffalo to field goals for all but one of the Bills’ six red-zone trips, but it wasn’t enough to win.
Of course, C.J. Spiller’s 102-yard kickoff return for a touchdown was backbreaking. The Dolphins’ lack of depth due to suspensions and injuries on defense forced starters onto special teams. You can see below how big of a running lane Spiller had.
He was never touched during his return.
Late in the fourth quarter, Miami’s final attempt to push and make the match a one-score game was foiled when rookie receiver Jarvis Landry muffed a punt right into the hands of a Bills defender. The turnover was the first of two during the game, but it was devastating to the comeback effort.
The defense had a strong showing considering the bad circumstances it was handed for much of the game.
Bills rookie receiver Sammy Watkins torched Miami on crossing routes for 117 yards and one touchdown on eight catches. Last week, we talked about how important it was for Miami to defend such routes.
The big mistake the Dolphins defense made came in the third quarter with 1:56 left. With starting middle linebacker Koa Misi out again due to an ankle injury, Jason Trusnik was forced to deal with the Bills rushing attack.
As you can see below, Trusnik struggled to read the Bills’ designed running play, and he shuffled into his teammate as he tried to recover. Trusnik couldn’t get to the lane that defensive end Cameron Wake opens for his linebacker to fill, and Spiller sprinted to a 47-yard run.
After the run and ensuing score, the game was essentially over. Miami was unable to force a turnover during Buffalo’s red-zone plays, limiting the momentum switch the team needed so badly.
That play and a few others were all that Buffalo had to make because the Dolphins offense couldn’t execute at a high level.
Drops, bad blocking and ill-timed penalties plagued the Dolphins offense throughout Week 2. Seemingly every time the offense began to get into a rhythm, a drop would stall a drive.
Dolphins receivers logged four drops and ran two wrong routes, which directly affected the outcomes of the drives the errors occurred on.
Without any playmaker stepping up to help quarterback Ryan Tannehill, Miami couldn’t stay balanced. Its 49-to-21 pass-to-run ratio is a stark contrast to Week 1’s 41-run-to-35-pass ratio.
The new-look offensive line struggled mightily against the Bills’ talented defensive line, especially the interior personnel.
Center Samson Satele and guards Daryn Colledge and Shelley Smith couldn’t hold off tackles Kyle Williams and Marcell Dareus, as the two not only made plays in the backfield, but also opened up rushing lanes for other defenders.
Below is a picture of Shelley Smith losing right as the ball is snapped. The defender runs by Smith, forcing Tannehill to climb up in the pocket. Defensive end Mario Williams was there to clean up the play, notching a sack despite being blocked well until that point.
Even when not sacked, Tannehill had great pressure on him throughout the game because of poor blocking.
With 6:45 left in the second quarter, Miami ran a fake end around with a wide receiver. Lamar Miller didn’t notice the delayed blitz right up the A-gap by the linebacker, and this forced Tannehill to throw the ball away to Miller for a small loss.
The little details weren’t executed and continued to haunt Miami all day.
As mentioned before, the Dolphins dropped four passes on Sunday, by my count. The drops were devastating, with two by Miller coming on 3rd-and-short situations and with plenty of room to run for more yards.
Miller’s hands of stone could limit his offensive role moving forward, even as Knowshon Moreno is out with a dislocated elbow injury that he suffered Sunday.
Tight end Charles Clay struggled to make a major impact in the game as well, finishing with a pedestrian seven catches for 31 yards. His biggest play was one he couldn’t finish, however. Clay dropped a perfect slant throw from Tannehill in the second quarter, setting up a 3rd-and-long.
Mistakes by Clay have been rare since the beginning of 2013, but in a game where everything seems to go wrong, of course the Dolphins’ reliable playmaker would falter.
Even receiver Rishard Matthews joined the drop party.
On an out route towards the sideline, Tannehill put the ball where only Matthews could reach it. Despite hitting him in the hands, Matthews couldn’t reel it in for the reception. With time ticking down in the fourth quarter, the offense needed the crucial conversion for a new set of downs. Instead, Miami created a difficult third down because execution once again was subpar.
The Miami Dolphins always seem to play their worst in Buffalo, N.Y., against the Bills, and Week 2 held the recent pattern of struggles.
As Miami prepares for its Week 3 matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs, the execution on plays like the ones shown above must improve. Winning takes all 22 offensive and defensive starters playing effectively, and as Miami learned Sunday, special teams must be executed without incident.
The Dolphins possess a talented roster that can match up with most around the NFL, but when facing a team like the Bills, which boast one of the league's best defensive units, it takes 11 men executing a solid game plan throughout each phase of the game for 60 minutes.
Miami learned the hard way what happens when details aren’t treated as important. Now it’s time to utilize this knowledge and patch the holes before the ship sinks.
All stats used are from Pro Football Focus' Premium Stats (subscription required) or sports-reference.com. Game day stats are provided by ESPN.com.
Ian Wharton is a Miami Dolphins Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report, contributor for Optimum Scouting, and analyst for FinDepth. You can follow and interact with Ian Wharton on Twitter @NFLFilmStudy.
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