Dolphins vs Bills: 6 Things We Learned from Bills 30-23 Loss

As the rest of the NFL games continue to be played out in Week 15, we can reflect on this crazy weekend in the NFL. The Indianapolis Colts won their very first game, and the Green Bay Packers lost their very first game.

For the Buffalo Bills, however, it seems like business as usual, as the Bills' losing streak goes from six games to seven games, as they drop a home game to the Miami Dolphins 30-23. 

The Bills offense rallied in the fourth quarter, but their comeback effort came up short, as they were able to put up 404 yards against a good Dolphins defense.

Ryan Fitzpatrick had three more interceptions to add to his growing total, and C.J. Spiller flashed his skills in what I would consider to be the best game of his career. We will now address six things that we learned about the Bills in today's game.

Miami Defense Has Bills' Number on Third Down

In a rather bizarre statistic, it turns out that the Buffalo Bills have now managed to go nine straight quarters against the Miami Dolphins without being able to convert a third down. The streak started in the Bills victory in Miami in 2010, when they went 0-for-3 on third down in the fourth quarter in that game. Then, the Bills went 0-for-12 on third down in the Week 11 loss at Miami this year.

Today, they went 0-for-11 on third down, meaning that they are now 0-for-26 on third down against the Dolphins defense.

Sounds to me like the Bills need to try to do some different things on offense against the teams that know them so well, like the Dolphins. There were several times when they came up either inches short or a yard short on third down today, but nevertheless, the streak is still intact. Not a streak the Bills are very happy about, I am sure.

The Bills kept shooting themselves in the foot all day long with penalties. The Bills were the least penalized team in the NFL coming into play today, but they wound up getting hit with a season-high 11 penalties for 92 yards. The penalties forced them into a number of third-down-and-long scenarios that they weren't able to convert.

Erik Pears Laid an Egg Today vs Cameron Wake

Why is it that after the Bills reward a veteran for solid play by extending their contract in the middle of the season that the player in question immediately starts to see their game go south?

The Bills just extended right tackle Erik Pears with a three-year contract extension this week. No sooner than the ink is dried on the contract than Pears has to face Dolphins star Cameron Wake, who repeatedly beat him all day like a drum.

Pears was called for at least two holding penalties, and from what I saw, could have been called for at least two or three more that weren't called.

The thing that was even more mysterious is that the Bills didn't make any adjustments. They could have brought in a tight end to help block Wake, or bring in another running back to help contain Wake or allow Fitzpatrick time to throw. But for whatever reason, the Bills let Pears battle with Wake one-on-one on the outside, and he was constantly getting beat all day.

This was by far the worst game I have witnessed from Pears since he joined the team.

Now about that contract...

Ryan Fitzpatrick Continues to Make Bad Decisions with the Ball

Ryan Fitzpatrick had another shaky performance today, as he threw three more interceptions on the day. Two of the three were clearly bad decisions, and this is not just a one-time occurrence.

In one interception, Fitzpatrick stepped up in the pocket and had room to run with the ball. Instead, he decided to try to thread the needle by throwing the ball into a small window to Brad Smith with three defenders converging on the ball. The ball took a crazy bounce off of one of the Dolphins defender's knees and bounced up in the air for an easy interception.

On the second interception, the Dolphins blitzed Yeremiah Bell, and rather than just throw the ball away or take the sack (either option would have been fine), Fitzpatrick blindly threw the ball in an area where the receiver was, but had no clue if he was open. The Dolphins easily stepped in front of the receiver to make the interception.

The third interception was Fitzpatrick trying to throw his patented rainbow pass deep down the sideline, but these are the kind of passes that he typically under throws, and once again, the defender was in better position to catch the pass than the Bills wide receiver. Granted, Steve Johnson should have turned himself into a defensive back there to prevent the pick, but this kind of a play should be removed from Fitzpatrick's playbook because he is not able to hit the play enough to make it work.

On the day, Fitzpatrick hit on 31-of-47 passes for 291 yards and two touchdowns to go along with the three interceptions. Many of his completions and pass yardage took off when the Dolphins went to a prevent defense in the second half. Fitzpatrick was sacked three times on the day. His QB Passer Rating was 72.7.

Bills Run Defense Was Pourous Again

The Bills defense was gauged for 448 total yards of offense today. That is not a figure to be proud of. However, the defense did strip the ball away from the Dolphins three times today, and most of those were by an attitude or desire to contest the Dolphins for the ball and strip it away whenever possible.

The field conditions got slick in the second half with the rain and the snow, but the Bills defense was made to look like they were weak in tackling on many occasions. Most troubling was the blown tackles by usually sure safeties George Wilson and Jairus Byrd. Twice, Reggie Bush was up against Wilson in the open field, and both times, he faked Wilson out of his jock. The long 76-yard touchdown run was the result of Bush running through a Byrd tackle.

Reggie Bush had a career-high day by rushing 25 times for 203 yards. He averaged 8.1 yards per rush. The Bills were able to stuff Bush on a number of runs in the first half, but as the game wore on, Bush started finding more holes and was able to rip off some long runs. The Bills linebackers in the middle, Nick Barnett and Kelvin Sheppard, weren't able to plug the holes, and Bush kept running through some big lanes.

This game is one more example of how weak the Bills defense can be under George Edwards. I don't know if he can survive the year, especially with the Bills defense tumbling further down the charts.

C.J. Spiller Has His Best Game as a Pro

In my opinion, this was the best game that C.J. Spiller has turned in as a member of the Buffalo Bills. The Bills offense scored a touchdown in the first quarter, breaking a Dolphins streak where they had not allowed a touchdown in the first quarter of nine straight games.

In the first quarter, the Bills turned to their backfield combination of C.J. Spiller and Tashard Choice, who combined for 92 yards of offense between rushing yards and pass reception yards.

For some reason, the Bills went away from feeding them the ball for stretches of both the second and third quarters, instead focusing on trying to throw the ball to their wide receptions, which led to the three interceptions.

Spiller just missed out on a 100-yard rushing performance, as he rushed 12 times for 91 yards. He broke a tackle and scored on a 24-yard rush in the first quarter, looking as confident and strong with that run as any run he has attempted with the Bills. Spiller also caught a short touchdown pass in the game's final minutes in garbage time to make the score closer. For the day, Spiller caught nine passes for 76 yards, and he turned out to catch more passes than any other Bills player today.

Tashard Choice was also effective, especially with his pass receiving, as he gained 41 yards on just three catches. Johnny White seemingly has disappeared in his rookie year from the Bills offense, but if they come back next year with a trio of Fred Jackson, Spiller and Choice, that should work for a dynamic backfield.

Bills Team Played with Heart and Emotion Today

It was clear in the first half that the Bills were much more fired up to play today. There was a lot of pushing and shoving on the field and on the sidelines, as players would wind up running over the sidelines as they pursued the ball and got into it with Dolphins watching from the side.

The word was that as both teams exited the field at halftime, the teams were pushing and shoving each other as they merged into the same tunnel headed into the locker room. That is what I meant by saying that the team was sick and tired of all the Dolphins running at the mouth and the smack talk coming from Yeremiah Bell about the Bills being soft.

The Bills might have let their emotions get the best of them, which is why they were hit with 11 penalties for the game. But I honestly would rather have them playing their hearts out than going through the game sleepwalking like they did in San Diego.

Aaron Williams impressed me with some big hits and stripping the ball from the Dolphins in the first quarter. The Dolphins had given up nine sacks last week against the Eagles, and the Bills did manage two sacks today, but they probably should have had more, since All-Pro tackle Jake Long was declared inactive for the game.

Marcell Dareus had to leave for a stretch due to a hand injury, so we will need to see how he is doing. The Bills should get tight end Scott Chandler back next week.

The Bills have two games left now. Next week, we are home to Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos, and then we close out at New England against Tom Brady.