Quick-hit takeaways from Dolphins’ hard-fought loss to the Bills
The Miami Dolphins couldn’t win the series against the Buffalo Bills as they were defeated 34 to 31 at Highmark Stadium.
Miami’s campaign comes to an end rather unceremoniously, as they had fallen from a potential top seed to the last team in the AFC side of the playoff bracket.
The players still gave it their all against Buffalo, even without their starting or backup quarterback. Skylar Thomson was the star, however.
These are some of the things we learned during the contest.
It is necessary to improve offensive operation
The Dolphins made too many mistakes, beginning with time management. Thompson and head coach Mike McDaniel couldn’t get the guys lined up in time to run their plays, resulting in a number of delay-of-game penalties or burned timeouts.
This was a problem for McDaniel earlier in the year when he was getting used to working with Tua Tagovailoa, so it could just be a familiarity issue, but that can’t happen on the biggest stages.
Drops proved to be costly
Thompson wasn’t great, by any stretch, but he was let down a few times by normally sure-handed weapons, making life more complicated for the rookie.
Jaylen Wade, Tyreek Hill, and Jeff Wilson Jr. failed solid throws really stalled drives and kept Miami away from any kind of sustained success.
One or two of these could be brought in by the Dolphins to help them win.
The defense is a major player
Despite having a strong front seven throughout the year, Miami wasn’t overly impressive in their sack totals this season, and their turnover rates were abysmal.
On Sunday, however, they did a great job and sacked Josh Allen seven more times. They also caused three turnovers and scored a touchdown.
If the Dolphins wanted a chance, Josh Boyer’s unit was going to have to play their best game of the season, and they just may have.