Sean McDermott said many words Sunday afternoon following the Buffalo Bills’ hideous 30-13 loss to the Miami Dolphins. But perhaps the most important word he uttered was a simple “yes” because of the question that preceded it.

He was reminded that he had said earlier in the week that he really liked the attitude the Bills have played with since going into their bye on a two-game losing streak and coming out of it with a pair of impressive victories over Carolina and Kansas City. And then he was asked if he felt that his team took a step backward in that regard in soupy South Florida.

“Yes,” he said.

Not good. Not when you’re facing an AFC East opponent that you’ve owned through the years, a team that was 2-7 starting the day, had just fired its general manager, and traded away one of its best defensive players knowing that their season is kind of shot.

You can’t take a step backward in a situation like this, but that’s what the Bills did as they got waxed by a team they had beaten 14 of the last 15 times. Making it even more miserable, they lost on a day when the team they are looking up at in the AFC East—the smoking hot Patriots—went into Tampa and defeated a good Buccaneers team to take firm control of the division as we cross into the second half of the season.

“They came ready to play. They wanted it obviously a little bit more than us,” Josh Allen said of the heretofore lifeless Dolphins, which was another damning acknowledgment.

The Bills are now 1½ games behind the Patriots, who also hold the head-to-head tiebreaker at the moment. Meanwhile, Buffalo’s next three games are against Tampa Bay, at Houston, and at Pittsburgh. New England’s next three matchups are versus the Jets, at Bengals, and against the Giants before their bye.

By the time the Patriots host the Bills on December 14, it’s not crazy to believe they could be looking to lock up the division title.

“It’s a week-to-week league,” McDermott said. “You’ve got to bring your ‘A’ game every week. We talk about that a lot. We really do. We work our tails off during the week to come out, to play better and coach better and perform better overall. It didn’t happen.”

No, it didn’t. Here are my observations:

### The Bills Came Out Flat, and Never Woke Up

It’s hard to remember the last time the Bills looked so uninspired, but Allen wasn’t just spewing a cliché about Miami wanting it more. That certainly looked like it was the case and that’s inexcusable.

The first half was ridiculously poor. On offense, the Bills went three-and-out on four of their seven possessions, managed just four first downs thanks to an 0-for-6 debacle on third downs plus a failed fourth down, and had 90 yards with no points.

The defense yielded 16 points, 221 yards, and 14 first downs.

“Obviously we’ve got to have better energy,” wide receiver Khalil Shakir said. “They came out flying and we just didn’t answer the call right away. You get so far back on your heels that it’s hard to recover, so we’ve just got to come out quicker, faster, play smarter football and overall complementary football as well.”

When asked how the Bills could have allowed that to happen, Shakir replied, “I feel like it just happens sometimes. I don’t think there’s an exact answer for why it happens or whatever, but for us, just making sure that we start every practice with energy and keep that energy throughout practice as well. Obviously, what you do throughout the week shows up in games.”

If that’s the case, it must have been a pretty bad week of practice.

### When James Cook Is Taken Away, It’s Trouble

Cook is having a spectacular season, but like we saw in the loss to the Patriots, if the opposing defense shuts him down, the Bills have trouble moving the ball and scoring.

Cook was held to 49 yards by New England in a 23-20 loss, and Sunday he had just 53 yards as the Dolphins never allowed him to get into a rhythm.

He has been held under 100 yards in four games, and the Bills have lost three of those, with the lone win coming against the Ravens.

That put all of the onus on the passing game, and once a defense knows Cook won’t be a problem, it can lock in on Buffalo’s receivers and make life miserable for Allen because, as we’ve been saying all season, this group simply isn’t very good.

Of course, Allen shouldered the blame by saying, “It starts with me. So I’ve got to be better. We didn’t execute, I didn’t execute.” But obviously, he’s doing all he can with what he’s working with—an underwhelming array of targets that lost perhaps the best one of all, tight end Dalton Kincaid, to a hamstring injury in the third quarter.

Keon Coleman finally made a meaningful play, a 35-yard touchdown reception, but on his other seven targets he caught just two passes for a mere 11 yards.

Allen was asked if Coleman is doing enough with his targets, and he said, “He got one today. So yeah.”

If “one” is good enough from the first pick of the second round of the 2024 draft, that’s a problem on many levels.

### The Bills Saw What a No. 1 Receiver Looks Like

There was a report before the game from NFL Network that former Bills general manager Brandon Beane made a big push to acquire Miami’s Jaylen Waddle, but the Dolphins declined—which made perfect sense.

Why would the Dolphins, of all teams, agree to help out the Bills by sending them one of the best wideouts in the league? That would have been an all-time stupid decision.

Waddle rewarded the Dolphins’ faith by blowing past Bills rookie cornerback Max Hairston, who started in place of Christian Benford, for a 38-yard touchdown on the first play of the second quarter.

He finished with five catches for 84 yards, and his totals were only that low because the Dolphins didn’t need to throw the ball in the second half.

It’s hard to watch receivers like Waddle and so many others around the league doing the types of things players with that skill level can do, and then watch what the Bills have at that position.

According to NextGenStats, Allen’s average time to throw was 3.53 seconds—the longest of his career.

Why was that? Because he was running around behind the line, waiting for someone to get open and too often, no one did.

We’re banging this point ad nauseam every week, but nothing is changing.

### The Injury Situation Is Out of Control

Cornerback Christian Benford missed the game with a groin injury and thus became the eighth member of the regular starting defense to miss at least one game.

He was joined on the sidelines by nickel corner Taron Johnson, edge rusher AJ Epenesa, and linebacker Shaq Thompson. Then, on the first defensive series of the game, rookie third-round pick Landon Jackson went out with a knee injury, leaving the Bills with just three healthy defensive backs on a hot, humid afternoon.

We won’t even get into all the other defensive players who we knew weren’t going to play, the ones that have been out for multiple weeks or are out for the season.

Every team suffers injuries, but this has been an absurd amount of bad luck on that front and it has McDermott’s attention.

Simply put, the Bills can’t continue to suffer injuries at this rate because they are digging way too deep into the roster to field a team each week.

“You always want quality players. They help you, right?” McDermott said. “The more we kind of get into the injuries and some of the guys that are going out, you go down the depth chart. I appreciate the way the guys have stood up and stepped in and taken advantage of their opportunities, but you’re just knocking down as you’re getting down the list there.

“We’ll never use injuries as an excuse. We do need to look to continue turning over every stone to figure out why this is happening. I feel like it’s happened quite a bit year to year, this year is probably as much as I’ve been around. I don’t know what it is. I really don’t. But we’ve got to figure that piece out pretty quickly here, and then year to year.”

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The Bills now face an uphill battle in the AFC East, with critical games ahead and many questions to answer. Addressing their energy, execution, receiving corps, and injury woes will be crucial if they hope to mount a serious divisional challenge as the season progresses.
https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/sports/football/nfl/bills/2025/11/09/buffalo-bills-miami-dolphins-game-observations/87144701007/