ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Here are my five takeaways from the Buffalo Bills’ 32-29 victory against the Miami Dolphins Saturday night at Highmark Stadium:
1. The fact the Bills are headed to the playoffs for the fifth time in six seasons is not to be taken lightly.
Clinching a postseason berth is only one step toward the ultimate goal, but it’s a big one. Safety Jordan Poyer, who signed with the Bills as a free agent in 2017, has been part of all five.
“That’s pretty damn awesome if you ask me,” Poyer said.
The Bills, who have reached the playoffs four years in a row, are also on the verge of clinching a third consecutive AFC East title. They have three games left and their targets also include securing the top overall seed in the conference tournament. But in the aftermath of a hard-fought win against Miami, they wanted to take some time to savor what has taken place since Sean McDermott became head coach in ’17.
Before then, the Bills were a laughingstock of the NFL, going 17 seasons without a playoff game. McDermott, for one, was in a savoring mood Saturday night.
“Very humbling,” said McDermott, whose five playoff appearances as a head coach trails only Marv Levy’s eight in Bills history. “Just coming here, moving my family here years ago. Terry and Kim (Pegula) giving me and my family an opportunity to do this for the first time. It’s really just a product of great people who run our organization. I’m one piece of it.
“Every coach, scouting guys, we work so hard to try and win one game. We put a lot of time in, the families have to sacrifice. You miss a lot of your kids’ events and things that go on. And that’s hard. It makes it all that much more worthwhile when you get a win and you can get back to the playoffs at home and go through a game like this. (The Dolphins) are a good football team.”
2. The Bills faced a better Miami team Saturday night than the one that beat them 21-19 on Sept. 25 at Hard Rock Stadium.
The Dolphins hardly flinched in the cold weather and occasional snow. Their defense gave the Bills some fits, especially through the third quarter when the game made a dramatic shift in the Dolphins’ direction.
Miami also ran the ball extremely well, generating 188 yards on the ground and averaging 7.5 yards per carry. Tua Tagovailoa also threw for 234 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
“We’ve got to do some things better on third down,” Poyer said. “We’ve got to tackle better, myself included. A couple of plays were left out there, but we’re going to get better and we’re going to continue to get better.”
3. Josh Allen was his dynamic self, throwing for 304 yards and four TDs and running for a team-leading 77 yards and a two-point conversion that tied the game at 29-29 with 9:02 left in the game.
His performance made as loud a statement as any of his determination to make sure this back-and-forth game was not going to get away from the Bills. He was not going to be denied, as evidenced by his soaring several feet into the air, sticking the ball out just far enough to cross the goal line, and doing a helicopter spin as the ball came out while he was hit.
“He makes plays that I’ve never seen before,” Dawson Knox said. “Sometimes you kind of turn into a fan while you’re watching them. … It’s not even surprising at this point. I’m just like, ‘Oh, here’s Josh being Josh again.’ He’s the best quarterback in the league, the best football player in the league. So anytime you’ve got him on your team, you got a chance to win.”
Allen offered priceless descriptions of two of his bigger plays.
On the four-yard touchdown pass, he threw to James Cook just as time expired in the first half, with Allen taking a huge risk by rolling to his right with the clock winding down and risking the possibility of coming away with no points before halftime: “It’s either a really good play or a really stupid play. I’m just thankful he came back to the ball and made a play on it. I threw it and in my head, I said, ‘I know I wasted too much time. I know there are zero seconds on the clock.’ And I just kind of slid on the ground and I just laid there and waited for … cheers.”
On his 44-yard run that set up his five-yard scoring throw to Dawson Knox and Allen’s two-point conversion: “I just trusted the angle I was running on, found a way to scoot by; that’s really all it was. I felt like Forrest Gump.”
4. The Bills’ offensive line was forced to do some major shuffling after center Mitch Morse left the game early with a concussion.
Allen described Morse as the “heartbeat of the O-line. He makes all the calls. He knows the game plan inside and out.”
Greg Van Roten took over at the center and had his struggles, as did the rest of the group. The Bills need better from their offensive line through the balance of the season and into the playoffs. Without Morse, that could be a tall order.
5. Allen said he fully expects the Bills to see the Dolphins again in the postseason.
Perhaps that will be the case, assuming the Dolphins make it in as a wild card.
They are a difficult matchup for the Bills. They showed Saturday night that they can pound the football on the ground, which complements their quick-strike capability with speedy receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle.
Defensively, the Dolphins were able to generate steady pressure on Allen. Though they only sacked him twice, they were able to make him feel uncomfortable and forced him to run around the pocket and/or take off, even on plays not designed for him to run.