Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Dolphins hold off Bills, stay in hunt
Miami withstands late drives to beat Buffalo, keep playoff hopes alive.
MIAMI GARDENS — Really, if you think about it, what better play to sum up Sunday’s wackiness and two franchise’s uncertain blueprints than that final heave-ho by Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen?
Miami Dolphins defensive end Robert Quinn’s lungs hurt from chasing Allen. Defensive tackle Akeem Spence’s heart dropped watching him throw. Safety Reshad Jones said a prayer — quick and heartfelt like any Dolphins fan — as Sunday’s final football fluttered toward a wide open Buffalo tight end Charles Clay in the end zone with about a minute left in the game.
“I mean, wide open,” Quinn said, shaking his head afterward at his Dolphins locker after a 21-17 win. “I thought they had it.”
“I thought I had it,” Clay said in the Bills locker room.
They did have it, too — the catch, the touchdown, the win, the full day of football oddness. And then they didn’t have it.
Clay didn’t. He dropped it. Or Allen slightly underthrew it. Whatever, the ball squirted along the ground.
“I said, ‘Whew,’ ” Dolphins safety T.J. McDonald said. “Just that. Whew.”
There’s no apologizing after a win. So there’ll be none of that. Oxygen, maybe. But no apologies. There was the small picture to consider, the one constricted just to Sunday, the one that moved the Dolphins to 6-6 and gave their season a stay of execution.
“I’m not frustrated by anything right now — we won,” Dolphins coach Adam Gase said.
Then there’s the big picture of team architecture and blueprint. The Dolphins’ seventhyear quarterback, Ryan Tannehill, just led a pop-gun offense that had 175 total yards at home compared to Allen and a faceless Buffalo offense’s 415.
Buffalo leap-frogged the Dolphins to draft Allen in April. Sunday he was running (135 yards) and throwing (231 yards) the ball all over Hard Rock Stadium. And, yes, the full stadium gives the day context. His throws went everywhere. The end zone. The sideline. The popcorn stand, at odd times.
He missed three wideopen touchdowns. You see why Buffalo planned to have him sit this entire season. You also see why he might be dazzling — or not ever accurate at all.
Allen is an amusement park ride that goes up and down right now.
“He’s going to be special,” Quinn said.
That’s Buffalo’s blueprint to tomorrow. Meanwhile, there was the Dolphins’ blueprint for this season that again showed how flawed it is on that final play. Three of the Dolphins’ five highest-paid players are pass rushers. The Dolphins are 29th in the NFL in pass rush this season, and Sunday showed why.
There was Allen, playing behind a makeshift line, throwing to receivers you don’t know, and either not being bothered or eluding this defense all day. Quinn had a sack Sunday. That gives him 31⁄2 for the year. The only other sack against this leaky Buffalo line was by cornerback Bobby McCain.
That fits, too. The Dolphins regular pass rush is doing so little cornerback blitzes are needed. This was a defense built in a way that asked teams to run on it and suffer when they passed. It’s not quite worked that way. Sunday was just the latest proof of that. They left talking up the other team’s quarterback.
“Buffalo’s got a nice little quarterback on their hands,” Quinn said. “Some stuff he did today is really just uncoachable. Put us in a bind to the very last play. He’s a pretty special kid. If he continues to grow, he’s got all the arm talent. Just keep your eyes open, I guess.”
And the Dolphins? Well, Xavien Howard intercepted Allen twice. The day swung on those plays, probably. There’s no other way to explain how the Dolphins won except on takeaways. It tells just what this season has become that even the good days are only so good.
And Sunday, as with any win, was a good day. Well, sort of. Gase had the correct and proper response to all this. “I don’t care,” he said. He won. That’s all that matters in Sunday’s small picture. As for the big picture of these two teams’ blue prints, it brought one thing into focus. It explained why New England is on course to win its 15th AFC East title in 16 seasons.