The Buffalo Bills defeated the Miami Dolphins 31-21 in a hard-fought matchup last Thursday night. While the Bills entered play as huge favorites (they were laying 12.5 points in some books) the game was
much closer than that throughout. Only one score or less separated the two teams until Buffalo’s final drive, which culminated in a field goal by Matt Prater to seal the deal.
The Bills saw a much more focused Miami team, one that looked like it knew its season could be in jeopardy with a loss. No team is truly buried just three weeks into a season, but after yet another loss at the hands of the Bills dropped the Dolphins to 0-3 for the 2025 season, Miami faces a huge challenge to bring themselves back into the playoff picture.
It wasn’t all roses for Buffalo, as the Bills struggled some on a short week against an opponent that they know well. Here’s how our five players to watch performed this week.
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QB Josh Allen
It certainly wasn’t the prettiest statistical output from Allen in his career, and there weren’t many highlight reel-style plays that included hurdles or laterals from his wideouts. However, Allen turned in a tremendously efficient night, completing 22-of-28 passes for 213 yards and three touchdowns.
One of those touchdowns was a dot to tight end Dalton Kincaid on a wheel route (we’ll talk more about him later). Another was a gorgeous flip to rookie Jackson Hawes, whose first NFL touchdown came on a circus play while Allen was evading pressure. The final one was a favorite of mine, as Allen found Khalil Shakir off an orbit motion look that saw the Dolphins defense entirely outflanked.
It was good enough to give Allen 200 career touchdown passes, leaving him just 37 shy of Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly’s franchise record. Allen also had 25 yards rushing on four carries in a game where it seemed like the coaching staff may have told him to go easy on the rushing attempts after injuring his nose the week prior. Calling that kind of effort routine feels spoiled, but it really is just what we’ve come to expect from the reigning NFL MVP.
TE Dalton Kincaid
I said we’d “insert a pass-catcher here,” and I even went so far as to speculate that the tight ends would have a good night. However, it was Kincaid who was the big target on Thursday, so he receives the spotlight treatment.
We already mentioned his touchdown catch on a wheel route, but Kincaid was Buffalo’s top receiver on the evening overall, as well, catching five of his six targets for 66 yards and a score. He’s now seen six targets in consecutive games, totaling 16 on the season. He has a touchdown grab in two of the Bills’ three games this year, and he leads the squad with two receiving touchdowns overall.
Kincaid is second on the team to Keon Coleman in targets (16), receptions (13), and receiving yards (151), usurping even Shakir as that second option so far in the early going. His ability to stretch the field both in the middle and on the perimeter has been essential so far, and it’s nice to see him back to full health after struggling so mightily with knee injuries last year.
DE Joey Bosa
Bosa made a splash in his first two games, forcing a combined three fumbles in wins over the Baltimore Ravens and the New York Jets. It was a quiet night for him overall on Thursday, as he managed just one assisted tackle and one quarterback hit while playing 87% of the team’s defensive snaps.
Honestly, it was a quiet, disappointing night for Buffalo’s pass rush as a whole, as they finally faced a quarterback who isn’t a threat to run, and they just couldn’t bring him down in the pocket. The Bills have noted that they’d like Bosa to play less, but I’d just like him to play more consistently and efficiently.
We can’t expect a sack and a forced fumble every week, but there were a few instances where someone on the defensive line had to make a play. Fortunately for the Bills, it happened when Deone Walker, the massive rookie defensive tackle, won a pass-rush rep and forced a big-time interception in the fourth quarter.
LB Terrel Bernard
Speaking of that big interception, it was the Bills’ defensive captain and resident turnover-forcing machine who came up with it. After Walker won that aforementioned pass-rush rep, quarterback Tua Tagovailoa rushed a throw to a wideout on a “spot” concept. Bernard came barreling down on the route and Tagovailoa hit him in stride. Had he taken the “easy money” and thrown it to the flat, he likely would have lived to see another down. He didn’t have time to check his third read in the progression, the deep corner route, thanks to Walker, who tipped the pass ever-so-slightly before Bernard caught it.
It always seems like Bernard is the guy when the Bills need a play on defense, and he did it again last week. He totaled seven tackles, including one for loss, in addition to the interception.
CB Christian Benford
Buffalo’s top corner struggled again this week, and again, I point to the shift in philosophy we’re seeing this season. Buffalo is playing much more man than they have in the past. Benford thrives in zone concepts. He’s a good man-cover corner, but shiftier, speedier players can give him some trouble. That’s exactly what he’s run into so far this season.
Buffalo is caught between a rock and a hard place defensively. They know that they need to play more man in order to compete with some of the elite teams in the league, but their personnel remains best suited for zone concepts. Add in the struggles at safety, which are definitely limiting the pre-snap disguises they can run right now, another staple of this defense, and you have some more situations where the Bills are just lining their guys up across from the other team and trying to win man-on-man.
And, while I can sit here and nit-pick that it hasn’t been perfect, the fact remains that their record is. I anticipate that the Bills will improve defensively as the season progresses. They’ll receive help on the defensive line when Larry Ogunjobi and Michael Hoecht return from suspension, and they’ll receive help in the secondary when first-round pick Maxwell Hairston comes off of Injured Reserve.
Against Miami, Benford had four tackles and no pass breakups, and he allowed another touchdown, this time to Tyreek Hill in the second half to tie the game at 21. Benford is leading the Bills in tackles right now with 15. That shows his willingness to mix it up in the run game, but it also shows that he’s been beaten more than normal in the passing game, as well. We’ll see if he can notch his first pass breakup of the season this weekend against the New Orleans Saints.
