Bills headed down to Miami and faced a Dolphins team that just lost to the London Jaguars. It was the home debut for the Dolphins and the Bills will still reeling from an emotional loss to the Patriots. The Bills recovered pretty well from the loss and gave the Dolphins a beatdown for the ages.
The Roman Way
Against the Patriots the Bills offense struggled until the Pats slacked off. The playcalling was really predictable and didn’t utilize the strengths of the offense. This week Roman opened up the playbook and utilized all his players to their best ability. The Bills moved Tyrod around with bootlegs and rolling him out where he can use his athleticism to create mismatches. Big Play Clay was heavily involved in the gameplan as he was the target of many designed rollouts. Tyrod was also more willing to take shots downfield early in the game. His deep ball is probably his best throw as he puts just enough arc on it to drop it in the receiver’s hands. He also took deeper dropbacks at times so the pressure wouldn’t swarm him and give him better opportunity the scan the field. That and a better day by the offensive line led to the best passing production of the year. If Roman continues to open up the playbook, Tyrod will continue to make plays and Roman can take any head coach opening out there.
The run game was also pretty good as they attacked the defense in numerous ways and even got Percy Harvin involved. The best back of the day was Karlos “Los” Williams who 102 yards rushing and his third TD in three games. Los along with Shady McCoy give the Bills a Thunder and Lightning similar to what they had with CJ and Freddy except Shady never gets winded. The run game will be the backbone of the offense and overall it did a great job.
Sexy Rexy is Back
The Bills defense got gashed by the Patriots as Brady picked them apart. This week the Bills went back to their week one defense and played more press and blitzed Tannehill which led to three first half interceptions and one being a pick six. The Bills shut down the run (currently have the best run defense in the NFL) and forced Tannehill to win it himself. The Bills created constant pressure and Tannehill really didn’t have much time to throw deep. The Bills have a top five defense….as long as they aren’t playing the Patriots.
Bonus: Dolphins Need a Reboot
The Dolphins were a preseason pick to challenge the Patriots for the East and made the playoffs. They made a splash in getting in Suh and many thought he would solve all their problems. Instead with lots of talent, the defense is horrible, the offensive line can’t block and outside of Landry the wide receivers are young and raw. Suh has been getting double and triple teamed on every play and yet the Dolphins still cannot get pressure. Grimes and Jones are bright spots on the defense but they clearly don’t have much else in the secondary that is serviceable as evident by Brice McCain starting outside. The linebackers have lots of talent and Misi was everywhere on Sunday.
This leads to what has been holding the Dolphins back the past two years; Joe Philbin. Philbin became the Dolphins Head Coach because he happened to be in the same building as Aaron Rodgers. His first order of business was making sure Brandon Marshall was gone who would have really helped their rookie QB. Then he allowed a “bullying” scandal to happen which forced out the best guard on their team (also currently rated the best guard in the NFL). The only good move Philbin has made in his tenure was letting go of Mike Sherman but even then, it was a move forced on him and he didn’t want to do it.
Now we go to current problem with the Dolphins caused by another coach Philbin has stuck with for far too long, Kevin Coyle. Since the Thursday Night Game last year, all of a sudden, the Dolphins defense could not even stop Wake Forest and got gashed week in and week out. For a team the two years prior and up to that point, had a pretty decent defense. But since then Coyle has called predictable plays on defense and has no clue how to stop the run. This is even after spending 114 million dollars on a defensive tackle whose best trait is stopping the run. Despite openings in the offensive line, Coyle has no desire to blitz, instead having his defenders play off coverage and hope the front four can generate pressure (it hasn’t worked so far). Coyle was the reason the Fins missed the playoffs and Philbin’s sticking with him this year will be the reason they miss it this year. Philbin has showed zero improvement as a coach despite having a bunch of young talent and a top half QB. When the Dolphins were in a win and get in scenario, he choked and let Geno Smith beat him. If the Dolphins want to make the playoffs in the next three years, Philbin is not the guy. They need some new blood in there, preferably someone’s whose best feature isn’t being in the same building as a top 5 QB. But will Ross actually pull the trigger?
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