The Buffalo Bills turned their home season finale against the rival Miami Dolphins into an excellent Christmas present for their fans. Combining their best defensive effort of the year with a workmanlike offensive showing, the Bills shut out a Miami club with playoff aspirations, 19-0. With starting quarterback EJ Manuel out with a knee injury, backup Thad Lewis stepped in and engineered a win over the Dolphins for the second time this season. Buffalo’s running game has been a staple of their successful outings this year, and Sunday’s game was no exception. Fred Jackson ran for 111 yards and the game’s only touchdown, while C.J. Spiller added 77, plus another 26 through the air, for a combined 103 yards that matched Miami’s total output for the game. Lewis led some impressive drives, most of which resulted in field goals, but with the way the club’s defense was playing, it was a good decision by coach Doug Marrone to play it conservatively and build up an insurmountable lead with kicker Dan Carpenter’s reliable leg. With Stevie Johnson out, Lewis did a good job of spreading the ball around to his entire receiving corps. Robert Woods had another fine game before being ejected for fighting in the fourth quarter. T.J. Graham, Chris Hogan and tight ends Scott Chandler and Lee Smith all made plays also.
The story of the game, however, was the defense. Coordinator Mike Pettine had a great game plan, and his unit executed it perfectly. They were aggressive all day, harassing QBs Ryan Tannehill and Matt Moore from start to finish. With seven sacks, the team broke the franchise record for sacks in a season. They also had two interceptions of Moore during short stints when he replaced Tannehill because of injuries. The Bills were sending blitzers from everywhere, as rookie cornerback Nickell Robey registered a pair of sacks. Kyle Williams also had two, while the other three came from Jerry Hughes, Mario Williams and Da’Norris Searcy. Leodis McKelvin and Jim Leonhard had the picks. Overall, the entire defense had a great day, with contributions coming from the whole unit. Miami managed to gain only the paltry 103 total yards, picking up only six first downs all day. Buffalo’s third down defense, a problem in some of their losses this year, allowed only 2 of 14 conversions, a 14% conversion rate. The Bills close out the season in New England, with a chance to put a crimp in the Patriots’ playoff seeding. A win would be a big deal for the Bills, a team looking to show some progress, to distance themselves from the mediocre Bills’ teams of recent years. It would put their final record at 7-9, a tangible improvement over their back-to-back 6-10 finishes under Chan Gailey.