ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The Miami Dolphins’ defense needed one more stop, one final big play like the ones it had made throughout the second half.
At worst, a stop on the Buffalo Bills’ final drive would have forced overtime. At best, it would have given the Dolphins a chance to take home a key road win late in the season and improve their slim chances for an AFC East title.
But as snow swirled around Highmark Stadium as the game neared its conclusion, the Dolphins couldn’t get the stop.
Bills kicker Tyler Bass hit a game-winning 25-yard field goal as time expired to send the Dolphins to a 32-29 loss on Saturday night.
Miami falls to 8-6 on the season and has now lost three consecutive games. The Bills improve to 11-3 and have won five in a row.
The game-winning field goal capped a 15-play, 86-yard Bills drive that ate up the final 5:56 of the game clock.
One drive earlier, Bills quarterback Josh Allen orchestrated a seven-play, 75-yard touchdown drive against Miami’s defense capped by a 5-yard touchdown pass to Dawson Knox and a game-tying two-point conversion in which Allen leapt over the line of scrimmage to get the ball just over the goal line.
This came after Miami’s defense forced Buffalo to punt on each of its first four second-half possessions and recovered a fumble on the fifth. In that time, the Dolphins scored two touchdowns — a 67-yard catch-and-run from Tua Tagovailoa to Jaylen Waddle with 12:57 left in the third quarter and then a 20-yard pass to Tagovailoa to Tyreek Hill two drives later with 2:34 left in the quarter — and added a 47-yard Jason Sanders field goal to go up 29-21 with 12:01 left in regulation.
The Dolphins trailed 21-13 at halftime due in large part to the secondary’s inability to stop Allen, who completed 16 of 23 passes for 217 yards and three touchdowns in the first half. Miami scored in the first half on a pair of Sanders field goals — first from 39 yards out to cap a 14-play, 52-yard drive and then from 21 yards out after a drive highlighted by a 67-yard run from Raheem Mostert stalled inside the 5-yard line — and an 11-yard rushing touchdown from Salvon Ahmed.
