The Miami Dolphins have a major Josh Allen problem.
The Dolphins love to play man-to-man coverage. They love to bring pressure on the quarterback. They’ve invested heavily in cornerbacks who can execute their scheme.
The Buffalo Bills’ quarterback keeps torching them.
Allen posted his fifth straight victory over Miami Sunday, and he only needed one half of football to put up big numbers on a team that entered the game ranked No. 1 in the NFL in scoring defense.
“We let them guys get a lead, and it’s a powerful offense they have,” said Miami cornerback Xavien Howard. “They’ve got a lot of weapons, and Josh Allen is a great quarterback doing some great things this year.”
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Allen passed for 224 yards and three TDs in 30 minutes.
In six games against Miami, Allen has produced 20 touchdowns, four interceptions and an average of 315 yards a game passing and rushing.
In the four games against Brian Flores’ defense the past two seasons, the Bills’ offense has put up 31, 37, 31 and 56 points, an average of 38.7 a game.
Here’s a look at the ways Allen killed the Dolphins:
Max protect wins. Miami has rushed five or more men on almost 40% of pass plays, behind only Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay this season. The Dolphins like to blitz on third down, and the Bills were ready for it on a third-and-5 situation with 1:07 left in the first half.
Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll kept eight men in to pass protect and sent only two receivers out.
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Miami showed eight men at the line of scrimmage and rushed five. Zack Moss picked up safety Bobby McCain, blitzing off the edge. Isaiah McKenzie had motioned into the backfield and blocked up safety Eric Rowe, who blitzed up the middle.
That gave Allen loads of time. Brown was one-one-one against Byran Jones down the right side of the field. He took a quick look back at the quarterback 8 yards downfield, then blew past Jones.
An Allen pump-fake sold the play, and the Bills’ QB lofted a perfect deep ball to the right corner of the end zone.
It was Allen’s 11th touchdown pass this season on a throw that traveled 20 or more yards past the line of scrimmage. Last year, Allen had four such TD throws.
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Slot corner trouble. The Dolphins have been very happy with the play of slot cornerback Nik Needham this season.
He had a long day in Orchard Park, even though the Bills were without star slot receiver Cole Beasley.
Needham was beaten by McKenzie for a 7-yard TD early in the second quarter. It gave the Bills a 7-3 lead.
“The first touchdown was a little option route,” McKenzie said. “By the way, Beas taught me that. Beas taught me how to get open on that. I ran the option the best way I could. Josh gave me a chance and put the ball in my hands.”
Once again, the Dolphins were in man coverage, and the single high safety was cheating toward Stefon Diggs, who was opposite McKenzie on the left side of the formation.
Needham was playing inside leverage, protecting against the slant to the middle of the field. McKenzie broke out, and Allen’s throw came with anticipation and accuracy. Needham had no chance.
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All day long. Allen had time to stand in the pocket and sing “Stairway to Heaven” on his 14-yard TD pass to McKenzie, which put the Bills ahead 14-3.
Dolphins defensive tackle Zach Seiler jumped offsides, and it was obvious the Bills had a free play.
Allen stood in the pocket against a four-man rush for 4.9 seconds.
McKenzie had time to run up the left seam, then outrun Needham all the way across the end zone before catching a sidearm throw from Allen.
“I think that’s a lot on Josh,” said center Mitch Morse. “It’s all him, his cadence when he wants to use that. And for us it’s just executing. We have rules when we hear that in particular, and it’s something we’ve worked on hard, pre- and post-snap penalties, as well as trying to get the defense to jump. We’ve harped on and worked on it, and it’s a lot on Josh.”
“We understand when the ball is snapped in that situation that they have free leeway to get open, and that’s all I tell them to do, is get open,” Allen said. “He did a good job of creating separation and finishing the job. That play is not perfect all the time. But to sit back there, and our line did a great job of protecting for as long as they needed to protect. He did a good job of getting open and making a play.”
The lightning bolt throw. Two plays before his TD pass to Brown, Allen hit Brown on a 27-yard sideline pass that put his elite arm talent on display.
Again, Miami blitzed. This time, Needham came rushing off left tackle. But Allen easily eluded him and escaped the pocket to his left. Allen squared his hips and shoulders and fired a laser to the left sideline. Brown got his feet in bounds at the Miami 32.
“It was awesome,” Allen said of Brown’s play. “I hit him right before (the TD) with a little toe drag swag on the sidelines for him to get his confidence going right before the playoffs. We’re trying to be the best version of ourselves going into next weekend and just getting him back out there and getting some of those reps with him was awesome.”
It was a rare case of Miami playing two safeties deep. But Allen threw such a fastball that the safety on that side, McCain, had no chance to close on the ball.
It also was a discouraging play for Miami because it’s the kind of big-arm throw that Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa doesn’t make.
