Tua Tagovailoa's difficult past, Buffalo's balance

ORCHARD PARK – The last team Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa wants to face is Buffalo Bills because almost Nothing good came out of these encounters..

Tagovailoa has built a solid resume since entering the NFL as the No. 5 overall pick in the 2020 draft, aided, of course, by some incredibly talented players on Miami’s offense. He has completed 67% of his passes, has an 84-40 touchdown-to-interception ratio and has a 96.4 passer rating with an average of 7.7 yards per attempt.

He led the NFL with 4,624 passing yards in 2023, and in 2022, thanks in large part to season-long receiver Tyreek Hill’s spectacular, Tagovailoa led the league in yards per attempt (8.9) and completions (13.7). Even though he lacks size and arm strength, he is a good player and definitely a difference maker because without him the Dolphins were mostly incompetent.

Except when he played the Bills. Then everything becomes much more difficult. Tagovailoa has it. Faced Buffalo eight times, winning only once (and he barely reached that level in Week 3 of 2022) and has only completed 61.8% of his passes in those games, averaging just 200 yards per play and 6.78 yards per attempt, with an abysmal TD pick rate of seven to . 10 and most importantly, it has He suffered two concussions.

Sunday afternoon, Tagovailoa deals another blow to his No. 1 enemyand when asked about it after the Dolphins’ 28-27 home loss to the Cardinals last Sunday, he said of the matchup with the Bills: “I have no idea. We have to beat them. They are good. Same thing over and over again. You have to beat them.”

But Miami won’t be able to beat the Bills until they finally find the secret sauce that allows Tagovailoa to play the way he does against just about every opponent that doesn’t wear a charging Buffalo on their helmet.

The Bills’ defense always executes the game plan against Tagovailoa, finding a way to disrupt his timing and accuracy by neutralizing the explosive speed he has in the form of wide receivers Hill and Jaylen Waddle and running backs DeVon Achane and Raheem Morris. .

“Number one, I’m glad he’s OK,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said of the return of Tagovailoa, who threw for 234 yards against Arizona. “(The concussion in Week 2 against the Bills) was scary to watch. Secondly, it looks like he is back and playing at a high level. So they’re a good team, a good offense, and we’ll have our work cut out for us here this week.”

Maybe. After all, the Dolphins are 2-5 on the season and may be playing to survive in the playoff race, and everyone on the coaching staff and roster knows it, and now the big, bad Bills stand in their way. .

“It’s a must win every week,” Hill said. “Our mentality (against the Cardinals) was a must-win, but next week we’ll move on under the 24-hour rule and Buffalo is a must-win.”

Here are three questions that came to my mind as I went to the match:

1. How important is balance in the Bills offense?

Josh Allen and the Bills had a big day in Seattle

Josh Allen said the Bills had their best game of the season.

It’s become clear that the Bills will be much more dangerous offensively when they can support Josh Allen with a rushing attack. Last Sunday in SeattleOffensive coordinator Joe Brady was able to find a nice rhythm in his play calling because he was balanced in his decisions, mixing pass and run almost 50-50.

The result was two touchdown drives of at least 90 yards, the other three of 69, 61 and 73 yards, and the Bills held the ball for more than 38 minutes en route to season highs in first downs (29) and total tackles. yards (445). It was a master lesson from Brady in the coaching booth and the players handling the play calls, and as a result the Bills’ season point differential is plus-84, which ranks No. 1 and second in the AFC. The NFL trails only the 6-1 Lions (plus-100).

“These days, it seems like defenses are putting more and more pressure on you to move consistently throughout a double-digit game drive to get points, for example,” McDermott said. “Being able to be efficient but also explosive, maintaining one’s level of execution and detail, which leads to execution up and down the drive.”

Although Allen will always be the most important figure, he gets his money’s worth by turning down James Cook. Inside Seattle, Cook rushed for 111 yards and two TDs and much of his success came in a way you wouldn’t normally expect: He used his speed, his vision, and his ability to slide through the fold, but he also wasn’t afraid of contact, and that last trait is how the Bills now rely on Cook around the goal line.

The two TDs came on runs of two and seven yards; During his first two seasons in the league, he would stand on the sideline and watch bigger, more physical backs make those carries.

“Yeah, running that fast and landing the boom on the second touchdown,” Allen said. “I wouldn’t say he has the biggest physique, but he can be a furious runner and you saw that today.”

Cook was kidnapped jets gamebut he still has 452 yards rushing and is averaging 4.6 yards per attempt with seven rushing TDs, plus a TD through the air on 14 catches for 145 yards.

“Again, there’s a lot of improvement coming from a young player,” McDermott said. “He’s focused, he’s prepared, and you don’t take that lightly. These guys in the locker room work throughout the week to be as prepared as they can and they take it seriously. They hold each other accountable, which, as you know, is a very powerful thing.

2. Do the Bills have one of the NFL’s best offensive lines?

Based on the Seattle game, you can make a strong case that this unit is one of the most effective groups in the league. And the crazy thing about it was that the line actually had a terrible day in terms of penalties, six of them were conceded and the other was disallowed, but when played by the rules, wow, what a show.

Tackles Dion Dawkins and Spencer Brown, guards David Edwards and O’Cyrus Torrence, and center Connor McGovern dominated the Seahawks’ front seven, hurting them in the running game and buying Allen plenty of time on most of his 34 pass attempts. Go out there and make the right shooting decisions.

“They always get compliments on everything we do,” Cook said. “Goals, first downs, they always get the credit. Hats off to the offensive line, they played well. “I’m happy for them.”

The Bills averaged five yards per run and Cook had 10 runs of at least seven yards, plus a 10-yard run that was wiped out by a penalty.

“It elevates everyone because when we really get the running game established and (Cook) gets going, that opens up Dalton (Kincaid), which opens up the tight ends, all the wide receivers get open. It just opens up our whole offense. “It’s definitely a lot of fun when you can work the ball that long and control the front end.”

And in pass protection, Allen was sacked just 10 times, or 4.29% of his dropbacks. If you read anything about Pro Football Focus rankings, you’ll see that the Bills entered Week 8 ranked seventh in the weekly offensive rankings.

“It’s great,” McDermott said of the show’s gameplay. “You know me well enough to know what I value, what we value, and that is winning up front. And especially in the second half, when we started in the first half, you saw that I thought it was important for us to be able to take over the line of scrimmage in the second half.”

How did Bill 3 keep Tyreek Hill in check?

During a quick expansion run for the Chiefs, Hill had several big playoff games against the Bills; This was the kind of game fans will never forget. He caught nine passes for 172 yards in the 2020 AFC championship game and had 11 receptions for 150 yards and a TD in the 13-second fiasco in the 2021 divisional game.

But Buffalo’s defense has mostly done a terrific job against Hill, and he hasn’t had a 100-yard receiving game since coming to the Dolphins in 2022. That’s a big deal, because although he passed for 1,700 yards in his first two South Florida seasons, his best game in two South Florida seasons was in last season’s finale against Buffalo, with seven catches for 82 yards and a TD.

In total, in six games, including their 2022 playoff matchup against Buffalo, Hill had a mediocre 31 catches for 335 yards and three TDs.

Loud pass defense has long been McDermott’s hallmark because he knows that’s what you need to focus on in a passing league, especially against a team like Miami with Hill and his other weapons. Of course, this occasionally caused opposing defenses to pick apart the Bills’ run defense, but in the long run, McDermott’s coverage concepts were key to Buffalo’s overall defensive success.

An example of this was last week’s Seahawks, who came into the game with the No. 1 rushing offense in the league, but were throttled as Geno Smith could only manage 212 air yards, most of that in garbage time.

Despite moving on from safeties Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde and cornerback Tre’Dacious White and being without stellar linebacker Terrel Bernard for nearly four games this season, the Bills continue to make life miserable for opposing passers by ranking fifth in receiving yards. allowed per attempt (6.0).

They allowed 212 net passing yards or fewer in six of eight games; Two quarterbacks who found some success were Houston’s C.J. Stroud, who had 331 yards in the Texans’ 23-20 victory, and Aaron Rodgers, who had 294 yards for the Jets but still lost 23-20.

The key for the Bills is always discipline because they are primarily a zone team and players need to make sure they take care of their coverage without trying to do too much and recover when the ball is caught. This requires skill and confidence so that your teammates know they will be where they need to be.

Can the Dolphins finally find something that works against the Bills? Maybe, but it won’t be easy because unlike the first matchup, where Tagovailoa couldn’t finish, the Bills were without injured star cornerback Taron Johnson, while safeties Taylor Rapp and Damar Hamlin were playing just their second game together. as a start.

“This whole thing is a tough challenge,” defensive coordinator Bobby Babich said of Miami’s offense. “Everything about them is a challenge. Mike (McDaniel) does a great job, but we’ve seen them so many times. So every time we prepare for it, we know what’s going to happen. We know how challenging this will be. “We just have to make sure we execute our plan.”

Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades, including 35 years as D&C’s full-time beat writer, and has written numerous books about the team’s history. She can be reached at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @salmaiorana.

1. How important is balance in the Bills offense?

2. Do the Bills have one of the NFL’s best offensive lines?

How did Bill 3 keep Tyreek Hill in check?

Related Posts