ORCHARD PARK — The Buffalo Bills solved one of their Miami Dolphins problems and another one appeared.
The Dolphins were 10 of 15 on third downs Thursday, but the Bills have always had issues stopping Miami on third down since Mike McDaniel became coach in 2022. The Dolphins converted 40% of their third downs against the Bills going into the game, but usually it was because they didn’t have far to gain.
In the previous three seasons, Miami averaged 6.5 yards on first down, limiting third down opportunities and then only had 6.7 yards to gain when it got to third down. But the Bills frequently won early downs Thursday, limiting the Dolphins to 3.4 yards on first down, only for someone to break open on third down.
Buffalo had Miami staring down third and 7 or longer seven times and the Dolphins offense was able to stay on the field after five of them. Still, the Bills were able to escape with a 31-21 win.
“Third and seven-plus, those are situations that if you want to be a good defense, you shut them down right there and the drive goes no further,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “… There’s a lot from that set of plays. We were very intentional about it this morning, watching those in order. … Those are the small opportunities that you have to take advantage of.”
McDermott hasn’t broken out his favorite “complementary football” phrase often recently, but one of his other top McDermott-isms was tossed around heavily after the game. He talks frequently about matching pass rush and coverage, and in this instance, it wasn’t just a phrase.
The Bills only blitzed Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa seven times, which has been their game plan frequently when facing McDaniel’s teams. Miami’s downfield passing attack has been missing since last year, but Tyreek Hill still injects fear into opposing defenses and limits risks in coverage.
But Tagovailoa only completed 3 of 10 passes beyond 10 yards, the same number of completions as he did behind the line of scrimmage. The problem was that when the Bills did blitz, they couldn’t finish the play.
One of the passes Tagovailoa did complete downfield was a 19-yard gain to Hill on third and 12 to extend a touchdown drive that tied the game at halftime. The Bills blitzed cornerback Tre’Davious White off the edge and Cam Lewis up the middle.
White got a free run at Tagovailoa, but couldn’t make the tackle. And when Tagovailoa slipped free, there was nothing to keep him from buying time while rolling to his right.
To compensate for two blitzers, the Bills dropped backside defensive end Joey Bosa into coverage. The Bills were in a three-deep zone — which could have been a coverage bust because backside cornerback Christian Benford wasn’t on the backside of the play — and Bosa didn’t look comfortable in coverage, so Hill just ran right behind him to find a hole in the defense.
“We have a free runner,” defensive coordinator Bobby Babich said. “We have certain fundamentals when you’re approaching mobile quarterbacks that we got to follow. … and then he scrambles, he gets out, he goes to Tyreek and part of the coverage broke down and we’ve got to be better there.”
The flip side to that is trying to pressure Tagovailoa with four rushers. Even though Tagovailoa held the ball 2.98 seconds from snap to release, he still had 13 throws under 2.5 seconds and went 10 of 13 for 54 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.
Just before his fateful interception, Tagovailoa connected with Jaylen Waddle for 13 yards on third and 4. The Bills rushed four and Tagovailoa got the ball out in less than two seconds.
The Bills showed split safeties at the snap and Cole Bishop ran to his assigned spot. But because Tagovailoa released the ball so quickly, Waddle was already out of his break and made an easy catch.
Terrel Bernard’s game-sealing interception was an example of how the rush and coverage worked well together. Defensive tackle Deone Walker beat left guard Dan Brunskill quickly and got his hands on Tagovailoa’s pass.
Bernard knew what play was coming. He read Tagovailoa’s eyes from the snap and stepped in front of the pass without hesitating, critical because Tagovailoa released the ball in about 1.5 seconds.
“(Walker) had a quick win, which you need,” McDermott said. “And T.B. has the coverage piece. Those two did a phenomenal job. That’s the vision of rush and coverage working together.”