The Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins kick off Week 2 of the NFL season in Miami Gardens tonight, and with the teams both eyeing the AFC East crown to get home-field advantage for at least one round of the playoffs, should they qualify. This early season matchup is important. Both teams made the playoffs last season, and both were knocked out by the eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs — Miami lost in Kansas City in one of the coldest games in NFL history in the wild-card round and Buffalo lost at home the following week.
The Dolphins will be without running back Raheem Mosert (chest), while De’Von Achane is active despite missing multiple days of practice with an ankle injury. That could shift more pressure onto Tagovailoa and the Dolphins’ passing game, led by Tyreek Hill, who’s still dealing with the fallout from his being detained by police ahead of the Week 1 win over Jacksonville. He didn’t seem phased by Sunday’s incident, catching five passes for 130 yards and a touchdown.
On the Bills’ side, cornerback Taron Johnson (forearm) and defensive end Dawuane Smoot (toe) have been ruled out for the game.
Live29 updates
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TOUCHDOWN: James Cook gets his third TD on a 49-yarder
That was quick. Cook runs it up the middle and gets barely touched on his way to breaking the game open. That was some good blocking by Buffalo, and some perplexing decisions from the Miami defens
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Dolphins go for it on 4th-and-2 in their territory and Ed Oliver wrecks whatever plans they had. The Bills DL gets the sack and Buffalo will get the ball back on the Miami 48 and a chance to do more damage with 3:45 left in the first half.
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TOUCHDOWN: James Cook gives the Bills a 10-point lead
Allen gets the Bills to the 1-yard line with a 33-yard pass to Ty Johnson, then Cook punches it in. This is going about how a Dolphins-Bills game usually goes.
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Big play there. Josh Allen threads the needle to Khalil Shakir for a 21-yard pass, then Dolphins safety Jordan Poyer, a former Bill, gets flagged for unnecessary roughness on a helmet-to-helmet hit. The Bills go from their own 14 to the 50 in one play.
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A Terron Armstead holding penalty leaves the Dolphins with a 2nd-and-17, which results in a three-and-out. Bills get the ball at their own 15.
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FIELD GOAL: Bills take the lead off Tagovailoa INT
The Dolphins kept the Bills out of the red zone, but Buffalo still takes the lead via a Tyler Bass 43-yarder.
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INTERCEPTION: Tua Tagovailoa gets picked off again
Tua’s first interception was some bad deflection luck. This one appeared to be all him, unless someone ran the route wrong. He air mails a pass to Robbie Chosen and Christian Benford gets the easy pick.
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Dolphins follow up the touchdown with a three-and-out. They fair catch at their own 44 and will take over with good field position.
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Buffalo LB Terrel Bernard went to the Bills’ locker room.
— David Furones (@DavidFurones_) September 13, 2024
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That was such a sick play, motioning out the fullback as a lead blocker on basically a delayed semi-screen, wow
— Ben Gretch (@YardsPerGretch) September 13, 2024
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TOUCHDOWN: De’Von Achane makes it look easy to tie the game
With no Raheem Mostert, Achane is expected to get the vast majority of action at running back. He gets the Dolphins on the board with an easy catch-and-run in space. He’s got 26 yards on six rushes so far too.
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Huge swing there. Dolphins appeared to fumble at the goal line, but the play is blown dead on a false start after a Bills player picked up the ball. A potential turnover-saving penalty.
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De’von Achane took every snap at running back until the Dolphins reached the red zone, then they brought in Jeff Wilson Jr. He catches a pass on his first snap.
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TOUCHDOWN: James Cook gets the Bills on the board on fourth down
The Dolphins got a free rusher on Josh Allen, who finds Cook in the flat for a smooth fourth-down conversion and touchdown.
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The Bills get stuffed on 3rd-and-2 and keep the offense on the field for 4th-and-3 on the Miami 17. Josh Allen calls timeout, so we’ll see what decision they make here.
