Report card: Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills back to looking like winners again

Sal Maiorana | Democrat and Chronicle

Show Caption Hide Caption Josh Allen discusses the Bills victory over the Dolphins Josh Allen discusses the Bills victory over the Dolphins

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Consider this challenge met by the Buffalo Bills.

After suffering a discouraging and completely avoidable loss to Cleveland last week, coach Sean McDermott asked his team, moving forward and starting with Sunday’s game against AFC doormat Miami, to play fearless and free.

A 37-20 rout of the Dolphins was an indication that the Bills were paying attention to their coach.

“I felt that they played aggressive,” McDermott said. “Was it 37 points? That's our highest total to this point. l thought it was a good, hard-fought victory, great leadership during the week. I thought the guys did a good job getting back to who we are.”

McDermott acknowledged it was far from perfect, and he was dead on with that assessment, especially on special teams, but at least for the first time this year, the Bills will learn from a Monday film review session that showed a fairly dominant victory.

Here’s how I graded the Bills performance:

PASS OFFENSE: B-plus

There were some throws mixed in that still made you want to scream, but all in all, this was Josh Allen’s best performance of the season. He completed 21 of 33 for 256 yards with three TDs and no turnovers and he wasn’t sacked. Allen looked confident in what he was doing, and nowhere was that more prevalent than when he targeted John Brown. Brown had his best game with nine catches for 137 yards and two TDs, all highs for him since he joined the team. Allen also made a nice throw to TE Dawson Knox for a TD, and he zipped one in to Cole Beasley for a 15-yard gain on a quick slant. It’s still strange to me that Beasley isn’t more involved, but it’s tough to quibble about that on a day when the pass offense was productive.

RUN OFFENSE: A-minus

Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll did a nice job with his run-pass ratio as Allen attempted 33 passes while the Bills ran 34 times for 168 yards. Getting Devin Singletary involved again was crucial and Singletary produced 75 yards on 15 attempts with breakaways of 22 and 21 yards. The kid is dangerous, and the Bills need to continue utilizing him this way. Frank Gore had 11 carries for only 27 yards and it has become clear that he’s slowing down at age 36. As for Allen, he made a great run on a 36-yard keeper off an RPO, a fake so good that one Miami defender thought Singletary had the ball way longer than he should have while Allen was running down the middle of the field. Also, Allen’s eight-yard TD run was an athletic play that many QBs would not have been able to make.

PASS DEFENSE: C-plus

Not intercepting any of Ryan Fitzpatrick’s 45 pass attempts certainly wasn’t ideal, nor was allowing him to complete 32 for 323 yards, but the Bills sacked the bearded one seven times for 43 yards in losses and held the Dolphins to 5 of 18 on third- and fourth-down conversions combined. The Bills did a nice job with their blitz packages and that likely surprised Miami because Leslie Frazier isn’t normally a blitz heavy play caller. They had 14 QB hits in the game, three by DE Jerry Hughes. CB Levi Wallace has been struggling lately, and the Bills acknowledged that by having him rotate with Kevin Johnson. At first glance, it looked like Johnson had the better game because it felt like Fitzpatrick was targeting Wallace whenever he could and was completing passes. WR DeVante Parker was the big gun for Miami with nine catches for 135 yards including a 50-yard catch and run.

RUN DEFENSE: A-plus

The Dolphins came into this game as one of the worst rushing teams in the league, and nothing changed, not even against a Buffalo run defense that had been struggling. Miami attempted only 13 runs and gained a mere 23 yards. Part of the reason was because they were behind the whole game, and by sizable margins for a good portion of time. But also, the Bills were sick and tired of hearing about their porous run defense and they laid the lumber several times on helpless Miami RB Kalen Ballage. LB Tremaine Edmunds had a strong game as he had a game-high 12 tackles and shared a sack on a blitz with Matt Milano. This doesn’t mean the Bills’ run defense is fixed, but it was a step in the right direction for sure.

SPECIAL TEAMS: F

Outside of Stephen Hauschka’s redemption game going pretty well, and Andre Roberts ripping off a 44-yard kickoff return, this was a travesty for Heath Farwell’s crew. The Bills gave up a surprise onside kick in the second quarter, which shouldn’t happen, though I’ll concede a hat tip to the Dolphins for the execution and timing. But then to allow a 101-yard kickoff return TD to Jakeem Grant right after you’ve seemingly taken control with a TD of your own was inexcusable. Later, Grant ripped off a 50-yard return and he finished with 198 yards on five attempts. The Bills can’t afford to make mistakes in the kicking game, not when so many of their games are low scoring and close. Sunday, because they were playing the Dolphins, these gaffes didn’t matter.

COACHING: B

Hey, Sean McDermott finally won a challenge when he correctly asked for a review of a fumble by WR Allen Hurns one play after the onside kick. It was only his second successful challenge after 11 straight failures dating back to 2017. And good on him for challenging his team to play fearless and then doing so, winning a game that had to be won. Daboll called a good game as he kept the Dolphins off balance all day. He did this from up in the press box, so maybe that’s where he should stay from now on. QB coach Ken Dorsey was Allen’s confidant on the sideline. On defense, Frazier mixing in blitzes was a productive decision because Miami was not equipped to handle them. Also, using Johnson in place of Wallace for series at a time was a good move and should continue until Wallace gets his issues figured out.

MAIORANA@Gannett.com