Dolphins vs. Bills: Miami Grades, Notes and Quotes

No matter how good the middle might be, if you start badly and end worse, you wind up with what the Miami Dolphins did in Buffalo, losing 33-17 to the Bills. 

That's not to say there weren't mistakes made by the Dolphins during that good middle, mistakes like bad clock management, poor play-calling and poor awareness by quarterback Ryan Tannehill and the rest of the players on the field, but Miami could have overcome some of those mistakes had it not made some of the others. 

The Dolphins now drop to 3-5 on the season, but that's not the full story: Miami is now 0-4 in the AFC East, with only a road trip to the Meadowlands and what looks like a meaningless Week 17 matchup against New England left on the division slate. 

It will be difficult for Miami to overcome its current place, but before we discuss how that might happen, let's take a look back at how it got to 3-5 on what was a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Buffalo for the Bills. 

Postgame Grades for Miami

Bill Wippert/Associated Press

Position	Grade
Quarterback	C
Running Backs	A
Wide Receivers	A
Tight Ends	D
Offensive Line	C-
Defensive Line	B-
Linebackers	F
Defensive Backs	F
Special Teams	F
Coaching	F

How do these grades compute, considering the lopsided score? 

Here's a look, starting with the quarterback, Ryan Tannehill. His numbers were outstanding, completing 27 of 36 passes for 309 yards, no interceptions and a passer rating of 100.3. It was his best performance against the Buffalo Bills and one of his best performances of the season. 

So, why the C? Two reasons. On the final drive of the first half, Tannehill was in command but, after Lamar Miller failed to get out of bounds, failed to call a timeout. He was also late on a potential touchdown pass to Dion Sims that fell incomplete, ending the half. 

Worst of all, his fumble in the third quarter at midfield changed the game. Prior to the fumble, Miami was down 19-14, and had Tannehill held onto the ball, it would have punted and flipped field position on a team that started off hot but was cooling down significantly. Instead, his fumble sparked new life for the Bills, who would outscore the Dolphins 14-3 after that play. 

The running backs were outstanding, as Jay Ajayi and Lamar Miller combined for 85 yards and two touchdowns on 17 attempts, while Miller had seven catches for 97 yards. 

The receivers played well, too. Kenny Stills came up with a 46-yard reception, while Jarvis Landry and Rishard Matthews were their usual reliable selves. 

The tight ends weren't quite as good; at times it seemed like Dion Sims' hands were made of stone, while Jordan Cameron was missing in action. 

On defense, Ndamukong Suh had a better game than he'll get any credit for, recording a sack and three tackles while being a dominating presence on the field. Unfortunately, the rest of the defensive line and the linebackers were non-factors, while the defensive backs were absolutely torched throughout the game, especially Brent Grimes. 

Special teams were a problem, as the Dolphins committed penalty after penalty, including one which wiped out a return by Damien Williams. 

Coaching, well, that's a story for later in the slide show, but it wasn't very good. 

Jay Ajayi a Missing Piece to Miami's Offense

Bill Wippert/Associated Press

For the first half of the season, there were two big gripes about the Dolphins. 

Gripe No. 1 concerned the lack of production from their 2015 draft class, a class held back by their inability to get on the field due to either injury or incompetence. 

Concern No. 2 was their lack of a power run game. Miller was great at times, but he's not a power guy and is still fairly suspect as a pass-blocker. 

Ajayi was drafted to complement Miller, but for the first eight games of the season he was on the short-term IR due to a broken rib suffered in the final preseason game. Ajayi had said in the past he was ready, but due to the IR rules he wasn't eligible to be activated until this week. 

In fact, up until the morning of the game, there were doubts that Ajayi would be activated, with Andrew Abramson of the Palm Beach Post writing earlier this week that Miami still wasn't ready to activate Ajayi despite the running back being eligible. 

Ajayi was activated and showed a glimpse of what he could bring to Miami's offense, gaining 41 yards on five attempts while doing a good job at pass-blocking. 

Ajayi had a solid effort and has already become the most productive draft pick of 2015. It will be interesting to watch him throughout the rest of the season to see what he and Miller can do in the backfield. 

Brent Grimes Torched by Sammy Watkins

Bill Wippert/Associated Press

Buffalo wide receiver Sammy Watkins was a huge part of the Bills' victory over Miami. 

Watkins caught eight passes for 168 yards and a 63-yard touchdown reception that shouldn't have happened. (I'll get to that later.) 

Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor only completed 11 passes (and only threw 12), with the other three completions going to LeSean McCoy and Charles Clay. 

Watkins was the Bills' passing offense, and who was covering him? 

It was Pro Bowl cornerback Brent Grimes, who didn't look like a Pro Bowl corner, but instead looked as bad as the rest of Miami's corners have looked all year. 

This isn't me bashing Grimes, as Watkins is on his way to being an elite wide receiver in the league, but it does point out a major hole the Dolphins have at cornerback. Grimes will only be older and slower in 2016, and cornerback is a tough position to pick up on, regardless of the scheme. 

As a whole, cornerback is a weakness that will haunt the Dolphins for a while, as they don't have the talent to step up to replace Grimes when the time comes to replace him, which could be at the end of the season. 

Despite Blowout, Some Performances Worth Celebrating

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You likely don't want to hear about what was done right, but we're at the time of the year when you should be looking at the good performances on the team and how it sets up for next year. 

Any fears about Suh should be put to rest. He looked tremendous on Sunday and had one sack and three tackles. He should have had three sacks, but one was negated by a dumb Koa Misi penalty, while the other went uncalled as Tyrod Taylor was within his grasp before throwing it away. 

We already covered Ajayi's performance, but Miller was outstanding too, despite his average not being up to his usual standards. Miami should have run the ball more, but considering that Tannehill was on point throughout the game except for two plays, you can understand why they were just a tad pass-happy. 

Billy Turner was outstanding at right guard in his first game against the Bills; from what I saw he mauled on run plays and didn't allow a single sack. It's interesting to see how different this game would have been had Ja'Wuan James been healthy enough to play. 

Jarvis Landry was Jarvis Landry, and he even had a pass completion to Tannehill. Seems like there's not a lot that Landry can't do. 

There were positives on Sunday, you just had to know where to look. 

"Um, Me, I Messed Up."

Gary Wiepert/Associated Press

We discussed cornerback being a major weakness for the Dolphins, not just on Sunday but all season long. 

We also discussed how Grimes was targeted due to him covering Watkins and was absolutely torched. 

Give credit to Grimes, though, as he states exactly why the defense was this bad, per Hal Habib of the Palm Beach Post: "Um, me. I messed up. ... I didn't bring my 'A' game today."

Grimes wasn't the only reason for the poor defensive performance, as the linebackers were far from great while every defensive lineman not named Ndamukong Suh was atrocious, but he did take most of the blame and was responsible for most of the big plays by Buffalo. 

Campbell: "I'll Reassess Everything I Did"

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There will be a lot for Dan Campbell to reassess from this game, a game that you could pin on the horrid performance of Campbell and the rest of the coaching staff. 

He said that himself, per Abramson, stating that he'll "reassess everything [he] did." 

Campbell was responsible for a 14-point swing, as he cost Miami one touchdown while gifting the Bills a touchdown. 

Let's start with how he cost Miami a touchdown by not calling a timeout before the final play of the first half when Miami was down 19-7. After Miller had failed to get out of bounds with 20 seconds left, the Dolphins allowed 12 seconds to tick off the clock before getting a play in, a play they were lucky ended in a Bills penalty. 

Campbell did say he regretted not calling a timeout there, but it wasn't just not calling the timeout that doomed Miami, it was also the play call on the last play. 

Why line up in shotgun on the goal line? When you have a 6'5" quarterback, why not let him use a quarterback sneak, something the New England Patriots did in Week 8 a few times to convert first downs against the Dolphins? 

If that wasn't an option, why not use Ajayi, who was impressive on Sunday? Or how about lining up Sims or Cameron as an H-Back? 

Too many options on that play, and Miami chose the worst one. 

Campbell's next big mistake came in the third quarter, after Miami had shut down the Bills offense on third down, then Buffalo was flagged for holding. 

Per Chris Trapasso of NFL.com, Buffalo was ready to punt from the Dolphins 34 (or possibly even fake a punt) prior to the Dolphins accepting the penalty. 

What came next was a touchdown pass to Watkins, which effectively put the game away. 

It was a poor game for Miami's decision-makers, and there's a lot that needs to be reassessed. You certainly don't give a team ready to punt another chance on offense. 

Too many dumb decisions doomed Miami, but that will happen when the head coach's biceps are bigger than his brain. 

Statistics courtesy of NFL.com