Amazon Prime Video<\/a> and the NFL probably appreciate the Dolphins for making something out of what looked like a bad matchup, Miami isn\u2019t getting much satisfaction from moral victories.<\/p>\n![\"ORCHARD](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/3b88bc30-9504-11f0-bc55-8723c3aeaf2e.jpeg\"\/)
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Khalil Shakir caught one of Josh Allen’s three touchdown passes for the Bills in Thursday’s win over Miami in Orchard Park, N.Y. (Photo by Sarah Stier\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
(Sarah Stier via Getty Images)Dolphins hang around<\/p>\n
The Dolphins were big underdogs but they let it be known right away it wouldn\u2019t be a walkover for the Bills. Miami began the game with a 54-yard kickoff return. That led to a 10-play drive and Ollie Gordon II scoring a 2-yard touchdown for a quick 7-0 Dolphins lead.<\/p>\n
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The problem was that the Dolphins’ defense was overwhelmed in the first half, as it had been for the first two weeks of the season. Buffalo got a touchdown from tight end Dalton Kincaid on its first drive, a backhanded flip touchdown pass from Josh Allen to Jackson Hawes on its second drive and got into field-goal range on its third drive. But Matt Prater missed that field goal, technically giving Miami\u2019s defense a rare stop.<\/p>\n
The Dolphins took advantage. They went downfield and Jaylen Waddle scored a touchdown in the final minute of the half.<\/p>\n
Somehow, despite being a huge underdog and never really slowing down Buffalo\u2019s offense, the Dolphins were tied 14-14 at halftime. Weird things can happen on Thursday night, and the Bills had a tough time shaking an inferior Dolphins team.<\/p>\n
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Bills keep scoring<\/p>\n
When the second half started, the Dolphins’ defense still couldn\u2019t get a stop. Buffalo took the opening drive of the game 61 yards on eight plays, with James Cook rushing for a touchdown. Moving the ball was very easy to that point for the Bills. That had been the case for Buffalo and everyone facing Miami\u2019s defense this season.<\/p>\n
Then something odd happened. The Dolphins forced two straight punts. Miami picked up a fourth-and-4 with a pass to Waddle after the second punt, and that got their drive going deep into Bills territory. Tyreek Hill caught a 5-yard touchdown and with 12:18 left, the Dolphins had tied it up, 21-21.<\/p>\n
The Dolphins seemed to have forced another punt and had everything going for them, but they took a game-changing penalty. Zach Sieler tried for the punt block and crashed into the punter, drawing a 15-yard penalty and giving the Bills a first down. For a team that was battling against a much better team on the road, that penalty crushed its momentum. Khalil Shakir scored on a 15-yard swing pass after the penalty, and the Bills led 28-21.<\/p>\n
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Still, the Dolphins weren\u2019t going away. They had first-and-10 at the Bills\u2019 21-yard line with a little more than three minutes to go, trailing by seven points. But then Miami made its second huge mistake of the fourth quarter, as linebacker Terrel Bernard read Tagovailoa and jumped in front of a pass to Waddle, picking it off. The Bills ran out most of the clock after that, kicking a field goal in the last 30 seconds to put the game out of reach.<\/p>\n
Miami had a shot at an upset that would have stunned the NFL world and ruined plenty of survival pool picks. But the Bills avoided the crucial mistakes that would have cost them the win. Miami couldn\u2019t stay out of its own way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plenty of NFL fans didn\u2019t make this week\u2019s Thursday night game priority viewing. After all, the Buffalo Bills…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[53,1714,217,7,3024,3027,14706,872,7468,9502,6,1182,9229,3025,3235,3452,1089,23816],"class_list":{"0":"post-379731","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-buffalo-bills","9":"tag-dalton-kincaid","10":"tag-dolphins","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-jackson-hawes","13":"tag-james-cook","14":"tag-jaylen-waddle","15":"tag-josh-allen","16":"tag-khalil-shakir","17":"tag-matt-prater","18":"tag-nfl","19":"tag-ollie-gordon-ii","20":"tag-terrel-bernard","21":"tag-the-bills","22":"tag-the-dolphins","23":"tag-tua-tagovailoa","24":"tag-tyreek-hill","25":"tag-zach-sieler"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115229837483127015","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}