Miami Dolphins vs. Buffalo Bills: Full Report Card Grades for Miami
The Miami Dolphins were flying high heading into Buffalo, as were the Buffalo Bills.
In the end it's the Bills who flew higher—much higher—resulting in a 29-10 victory over the Dolphins.
Now the Dolphins are 1-1 and have us all wondering who this team really is: Is it the team that dominated the New England Patriots in the second half of Week 1 or the team that was destroyed for four quarters in Buffalo?
The answer is simple for me: The New England game was much more indicative of who the Dolphins truly are.
You're laughing at that, but here's why: Buffalo is a bad matchup for the Dolphins as it is. On top of that, the Bills had plenty of momentum going into the week, resulting in a jubilant crowd.
As I had been saying all week, this crowd was going to be ready to lift this team up, which it did as Buffalo controlled the first half on both sides of the ball.
The Bills did face a weakened running attack, though, as Knowshon Moreno was hurt on his only run of the game, a run that was just as good as the way he ran last week against New England and went for six yards.
Every factor possible went Buffalo's way, and games like that happen to every team.
What doesn't happen to every team? Dominating a good team like the Patriots.
Did Miami have its flaws in coaching and execution? Yes. And those flaws will be highlighted here.
So go ahead, claim that this game was "same-old Dolphins" while ignoring all the extracurriculars. Ignore the fact that the Seattle Seahawks could've lost this game with the energy we saw in Buffalo. Ignore the Knowshon Moreno injury—ignore everything that pretty much told you there was no way this game would go Miami's way.
Just say "same-old Dolphins" like you have for the last 10 years.
Just don't be too surprised if they're 3-1 going into the bye week.
Here now are the grades for the Dolphins' Sunday afternoon game.
Quarterback
1 of 10
This is the Ryan Tannehill I believe most Dolphins fans see when they see him.
Inaccurate, slow to react but showing more than enough potential to keep you invested.
The Bills are a bad matchup for the Dolphins, but more importantly, they're a bad matchup for Tannehill. He can't work slowly against a defensive front like the Bills, yet that's how he worked.
He didn't get a lot of favors from his supporting cast, and the injury to Knowshon Moreno affected him a lot, as it took away his best offensive player while also flipping Miami's game plan to a pass-happy one that saw Tannehill throw the ball 49 times.
It seems like the more Ryan Tannehill has to throw the ball, the worse off he and the Dolphins will perform.
But shouldn't quarterbacks want to throw the ball that many times? Shouldn't they want the ball in their hands?
You didn't get that feeling from Tannehill Sunday. But again, it's worth nothing he had almost no help all day save for Mike Wallace.
Grade: D
Running Backs
2 of 10
How can you evaluate someone based off 11 carries?
That's all Lamar Miller had on the afternoon: 11 carries for 46 yards. That's actually a good thing.
Damien Williams had five carries for nine yards. That's pretty good too.
As a whole, Miami's running backs ran for an average of four yards per carry. It's just a shame they weren't used more than the 17 carries they got (minus Tannehill's four carries).
Now as receivers, that's a different story. Lamar Miller couldn't catch a cold out there, as twice he had good throws from Tannehill but dropped them.
Overall I can't be too hard on Miami's backs; they just weren't used properly.
Grade: B-
Wide Receivers/Tight Ends
3 of 10
Mike Wallace by himself gets an A. He played a great game, catching five passes for 56 yards and a touchdown.
For once, the passing-game woes weren't completely on him. Now for the rest of the receivers.
Jarvis Landry was solid at wide receiver with five catches for 49 yards. I'd give him an A- for that position alone (we'll get to special teams later).
Brian Hartline, though, well, he had a long-bomb touchdown in his hands but dropped it. He also tripped over himself a lot. He had five catches for 36 yards, but it should've been more.
Charles Clay had seven catches for 31 yards, but he got tripped up behind the line of scrimmage on screen passes and dropped too many catchable balls for my liking.
Brandon Gibson was decent, no better or worse, while Rishard Matthews had a few drops.
Very uneven day for the receivers, and they'll get a grade that reflects this.
Grade: C
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Offensive Line
4 of 10
Atrocious, horrid. An outright disaster.
This performance in pass protection was a joke.
The line did well in the running game at least—you know, the 17 times the Dolphins ran the ball with their running backs—but its pass protection was horrendous against perhaps the best pass-rushing front four in the NFL.
Ryan Tannehill might have been bad, but how often did he have time? Not very much (mind you, I still think three of the four sacks were on Tannehill).
Just atrocious.
Mike Pouncey was sorely missed this week, as a lot of the pressure came from the middle.
Grade: D
Defensive Line
5 of 10
Missing: a pass rush.
If the Dolphins could have created a pass rush, this would've been a different game. Unfortunately they were dominated down low.
Cameron Wake was owned by Seantrel Henderson. When did you ever expect that would happen if you watched the Hurricanes?
After Miami sacked Tom Brady four times, it sacked EJ Manuel zero times.
On top of that, the run defense was practically nonexistent.
Not proud of what's supposed to be the strength of the Dolphins defense. Miami was manhandled.
Grade: C-
Linebackers
6 of 10
Let me just start by saying that Jelani Jenkins continued his good play at linebacker this week.
As for his two teammates, it was as you'd expect from the Dolphins linebackers.
Philip Wheeler is a gamer for playing with his arm still hurt, but he might have been better off not playing this week; he has a hard enough time tackling with two arms as it is.
Then there's Jason Trusnik, who wanted to make an impact but instead was a dud.
When the Bills could get past the defensive line in the run game (which was often), the linebackers saw to it that no one would be stopped until they got into the secondary.
Mix that in with some missed communication, and you have an already poor unit playing poorly—save for one man.
Grade: D (Jenkins saves it from being an F).
Secondary
7 of 10
The picture above shows what would've been a touchdown had Brent Grimes not stepped up to knock the ball out of the hands of Sammy Watkins.
That was the defensive play of the day for Miami, and the secondary was clearly the best unit, not just on defense, but on the entire team.
Buffalo beat Miami by picking on the linebackers, and save for a touchdown from Sammy Watkins, the secondary did its job as the last line of defense.
The Bills also couldn't go deep to Watkins; they had to game-plan for him to get the ball in space on short throws due mainly to Miami's coverage.
Overall, the secondary gets a pass for an otherwise awful game for the team and helps bump its overall grade higher than it should be.
Grade: B- (I won't let it bump it up too much).
Special Teams
8 of 10
Two big plays on special teams set the tone for the game.
The first big one came in the first quarter when poor blocking up front caused a Brandon Fields punt to get blocked.
After that, in a rush to get rid of the ball, Fields played the worst game of his career punting wise, as he constantly hit the ball off the side of his foot.
In the third quarter, Miami had a good, long offensive drive that put it within a touchdown. In two seconds, the kickoff-return unit gave the momentum up by allowing C.J. Spiller to run it 102 yards into the end zone unmolested for a touchdown.
Here's how bad that return was: Spiller didn't have to juke or change directions to run it into the end zone.
Then Jarvis Landry had a horrible day returning punts, topped off with a muffed punt that he had no business even touching (it was inside the Dolphins' 10-yard line—just let it go then).
Only Caleb Sturgis did his job, making his one field-goal attempt.
Grade: F
Coaching
9 of 10
The Buffalo Bills are division rivals, meaning the Dolphins have to play them twice a year.
How is it that for the third straight game Miami was unprepared for the Bills?
How can the Dolphins lack any fire? How can they not give Ryan Tannehill a chance to score with two minutes left in the first half?
How is it that the run game was abandoned once Knowshon Moreno was hurt, despite averaging four yards per carry?
This was a poor coaching job. It almost seems like the coaching staff forgets about the Bills, like they're an afterthought.
They have one more game against Buffalo this season on November 17. If the Dolphins go back to what they did against the Patriots (and they can even without Knowshon Moreno), if they're as prepared as they were against New England, they should still be in the hunt by then.
They should be ready for Buffalo; it's time to finally take the Bills seriously.
Grade: F
Final Grades
10 of 10
| Positional Unit | Grade |
| Quarterback | D |
| Running Back | B- |
| Wide Receiver | C |
| Offensive Line | D |
| Defensive Line | C |
| Linebacker | D |
| Secondary | B- |
| Special Teams | F- |
| Coaching | F |
| Cumulative Grade | F |
According to my grades, an F is a zero, which is why the Dolphins' cumulative grade is an F.
What else can you give that performance, though? On some grades I'll admit I was a bit generous.
Now for the bright side: As I mentioned in the intro, Miami's game against New England was more indicative of what team this really is than this matchup.
Yes, the Dolphins were ill-prepared and outexecuted, but this was also a game where they were down before the action started. The Bills had a heck of a week with all the momentum, so it was a tough environment to play in.
Could they have won the game with better play and a healthy Knowshon Moreno? I'm not so sure of that. The only thing that discourages me is the lack of fight at times.
They will get better as time goes on and will play a lot better next week against the Kansas City Chiefs. This team does have a different mentality than years past, and you will see it.
Also remember that in the next two weeks three very important players will be back.
Statistics courtesy of NFL.com unless otherwise noted.
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
.png?w=480)
