By Nick Wojton / Billswire.usatoday.com
The Bills had their way with the Miami Dolphins for most of their Week 11 meeting as Buffalo secured a 37-20 victory.
All three phases of the game for the Bills made an impact in this one – mostly for better, but at times for worse.
With that, here’s Bills Wire’s Week 11 stock report following Buffalo’s win:
Stock up
QB Josh Allen
Still no 300-yard outings for the Bills quarterback. Allen finished with 256 yards passing against the Dolphins, but he undoubtedly had a heck of a day. Overall, Allen was 21-for-33 passing with three TD passes, plus another rushing score. He also had 56 yards rushing.
Somehow, the Bills should convince Allen he’s playing the Dolphins every week. In his brief career, he’s brought some of his best stuff against them. And while opening this with a 300-yard joke, Allen would surely hit that mark, perhaps even consistently, if he treated every team like the Dolphins. Aside from a quick series that saw him toss three straight incompletions, there was a lot of good from the QB in Week 11. Allen continues to not turn the ball over as well, as he hasn’t tossed a pick in 163 straight passes.
WR John Brown
Allen’s successes wouldn’t have been there if it wasn’t for Brown, though. In his best game with the Bills, Brown caught nine passes for 137 yards and two touchdowns against the Dolphins. Brown had 14 targets as well, so Allen was certainly looking for him a lot.
Brown’s 82.9 overall grade from Pro Football Focus gave him the team’s highest grade on the day and he’s in line to be one of the team’s most consistent playmakers in about two decades. No one expected that when he signed on the dotted line, but no one is mad about it, either.
Pass rush
The Bills notched an impressive seven sacks on Dolphins quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, which included Ed Oliver’s first sack on a quarterback after he took down receiver Albert Wilson on a trick play earlier this season.
The Bills’ defensive gameplan deserves some credit for being so aggressive, but Buffalo’s pass rushers got there. Along with Oliver, Jordan Phillips, Star Lotulelei, Jerry Hughes, Corey Liuget and Shaq Lawson all had sacks from the defensive line. Linebackers Matt Milano and Tremaine Edmunds each had half a sack as well.
Run defense
It’s been an absolute mess for Buffalo’s run defense. It was week after week that the Bills saw a 100-yard rusher or 200-plus yard outing from opposing offenses against them. The Dolphins didn’t even get close to that in Week 11; they barely got into double-digits.
Kalen Ballage led Miami’s rushing attack with a touchdown but only had 9 yards rushing. That includes a long rush of 7 yards in the game. He only had nine carries, so it was not a good performance for him.
Last week, Cleveland’s Nick Chubb gashed the Bills and Buffalo got lucky the Browns stopped handing him the ball in the second half. No luck was needed against the Dolphins.
The Bills offense also deserves credit, too. They put up points and forced Miami to abandon their rushing attack in favor of passing the ball. Miami only had 1.8 yards per run.
LB Tremaine Edmunds
The middle of Buffalo’s defense, linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, was all over the field against the Dolphins. He had a team-high 12 tackles, an assisted tackle for a loss, along with a half-sack.
But Edmunds gets an even higher stock bump after reports surfaced of his off-field motivation. Teammates told reporters after the game that Edmunds gave a heck of a pep talk to the Bills locker room the day before the game. A young leader in the making continues to grow for Buffalo.
K Stephen Hauschka
Everyone was worried about Buffalo’s kicker for a minute. He entered Week 11 hitting around 61 percent of his kicks this season. Hauschka missed from 50-plus yards five straight times as well.
Against the Dolphins, Hauschka went a cool 3-for-3, and converted four extra points, accounting for 13 of Buffalo’s 37 points. Of his kicks, Hauschka drilled one from 51 yards for the Bills’ first points of the game. That was likely a big confidence boost for him and something the Bills really wanted to see.
His other field goals were for 34 yards and 21 yards.
DE Shaq Lawson
As mentioned, Lawson was part of the sacking festivities for the Bills against the Dolphins. But Lawson’s snap counts really put him over the edge here. Lawson saw a season-high 62 percent of snaps played on defense for the Bills. Along with his sack, he totaled two tackles against the Dolphins, both for a loss.
Lawson may have earned himself some more playing time, which is big. The Bills declined to pick up his fifth-year option on his rookie deal. He could be back, but he’s in a contract year now because of that.
Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll
Along with the success of Allen, Daboll deserves credit, too. Buffalo’s offensive coordinator has taken heat recently and his gameplan was a reason for the season-high 37 points on the scoreboard for the Bills.
The Bills played a more up-tempo type of game with some hurrying up to the line of scrimmage. Allen handled that well, as it’s something a young QB is coached up to do. In addition, Daboll changed things up and played a bunch of three-wide receiver sets against the Dolphins.
Isaiah McKenzie played a season-high 78 percent of snaps on offense as the No. 3 wideout. Cole Beasley and John Brown also played season-high snap totals of 90 and 99 percent, respectively.
Finally, keep an eye out for Daboll’s location next week. He was upstairs in the booth against the Dolphins. Will that continue or will he go back down to the field?
Worth a mention: The offensive line didn’t allow a sack, either.
Stock down
RB Devin Singletary
The rookie running back didn’t have a bad stat line at all. Devin Singletary had 15 carries for 75 yards against the Dolphins. He also led the way in the Bills backfield, playing a career-high number of snaps in Miami with 74 percent played. So what gives? Easy: the first two fumbles of his career.
Singletary had yet to cough up a ball at all before fumbling it twice against the Dolphins. He didn’t appear to lose any playing time because of that, perhaps because he jumped on one of the loose balls and John Brown grabbed another, so none were lost, but the Bills won’t want to see that type of ball security ever again.
CB Tre’Davious White
Weird to place White here, but part of that is because he sets the bar so high. But he did follow Miami’s top-target, DeVante Parker, around at times in the game. It didn’t go well.
After shadowing Cleveland’s Odell Beckham and Washington’s Terry McLaurin with a high-rate of success, White struggled against Parker, who had a game just as good as Brown’s. On 10 targets, Parker had seven catches for 135 yards. No touchdowns, but big numbers nonetheless. It was the first time the Bills allowed a 100-yard receiver against them this season.
ST coordinator Heath Farwell
We’re happy that Hauschka is back (hopefully). Aside from the kicker and a 44-yard suspect return from Andre Roberts, the special teams were terrible for Buffalo.
First, Roberts’ return came when he took the ball out of the back of the end zone. He should probably kneel that in most cases. Then the special teams unit was beat on a surprise onside kick and then allowed a 101-yard kickoff return for a score. Heath Farwell’s coaching is certainly a question mark moving forward as the Bills’ return team has to shore up these things. He is a first-year coordinator, though.
CB Levi Wallace
So not a good day for Buffalo’s secondary overall, obviously, if both starting cornerbacks are listed here. Wallace had been struggling in recent weeks and continued that pace against the Dolphins. Ryan Fitzpatrick had 323 yards on 32-of-45 passing against Buffalo’s secondary.
But unlike White, Wallace lost playing time. Kevin Johnson saw a season-high 52 percent of snaps played against the Dolphins. Wallace played a season-low 48 percent. Let’s see how the Bills address this next week. Who starts?
DE Trent Murphy
So we’ve mentioned a lot of success from the Bills defensive line against the Dolphins. Not much was because of Murphy.
Technically, he got the start. But it went downhill from there. Murphy was kept off of the stat sheet in the game and that’s likely due to his season-low 49 percent of snaps played. Last week, he played 77 percent of the defensive snaps, which led the Bills’ defensive line. Clearly, Lawson was favored here, but will the continue moving forward? It’s likely the Bills only try to bring back one of those two next season.