Dolphins lose in blowout: ‘We kind of needed this’

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The sky is not falling for the Miami Dolphins after a 48-20 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.

Coach Mike McDaniel wants his team to embrace adversity, and his players have adopted that mentality.

Wide receiver Tyreek Hill said that as disappointing as the blowout loss was, it could serve as a learning experience moving forward.

“We still got a young team, man,” Hill said. “And obviously, I mean you never want to lose a game in the NFL, but we kind of needed this — early adversity is always good and we definitely can learn from it and stick together as a team moving forward.”

Miami entered Sunday as the AFC’s lone undefeated team after scoring 70 points with 726 yards of offense in Week 3. Both teams scored on their first two offensive drives Sunday, flashing potential for an offensive shootout. After the Dolphins tied the game with 12:52 remaining in the first half, however, the Bills outscored them 34-6 the rest of the way.

Buffalo finished with 414 yards of offense on the strength of performances by Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs. Allen completed 21 of 25 passes for 320 yards and four touchdowns; his favorite target on the day, Diggs, reeled in six catches for 120 yards and three touchdowns.

Most of Diggs’ output came against Dolphins cornerback Kader Kohou. The second-year undrafted free agent allowed 112 yards, 3 touchdowns and a perfect 158.3 passer rating as the nearest defender in coverage, according to NextGen Stats.

Kohou complimented Diggs’ route running and said his own technique probably could have been better. But he isn’t ready to let the worst performance of his young career define the rest of his season.

“Just like when you have good games, you can’t let it get to your head — so I don’t let bad games get to my head,” Kohou said. “It was a bad game for sure, but I still got 13 more. If I let this game dictate the rest of my season, I’m going to have a terrible season.”

The loss was the Dolphins’ ninth in their past 10 meetings with Buffalo, the lone win coming in Week 3 of last season.

McDaniel said that, ultimately, the Bills made adjustments after the first two drives and Miami did not keep up.

“First off, I think the Buffalo Bills proved why they are the team that our whole division is trying to beat,” McDaniel said. “They made some adjustments, and we didn’t, so to speak. I think it was kind of compounding.

“After the first couple drives, it was a struggle for us for a lot of the game. That’s something that can’t happen against a really good team.”

Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa completed 25 of 35 passes for 285 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception, with a second TD called back after an ineligible man downfield penalty in the fourth quarter. He was pressured a season-high 14 times and sacked four times after being sacked only once in Miami’s previous three games.

Tagovailoa said there were “a lot of communication errors” on offense for which he took responsibility.

“I’ve got to be better with that aspect of the game for our guys and not put the guys into those situations, and that’s really what the game turned out to be,” he said. “It was really stopping ourselves on first down, guys not knowing where to go because of formational issues with what was communicated in the huddle and things like that. So it’s on my part to be better for those guys in the locker room.”

Adding to the frustrations of Sunday’s loss, Dolphins left tackle Terron Armstead left the game with a knee injury in the second quarter and did not return. McDaniel said the injury wasn’t a “reaggravation of anything,” adding that the team would know more Monday.

The Dolphins will play Buffalo at home in Week 18 to close the regular season. For now, they travel back to south Florida to host the New York Giants and Carolina Panthers over the next two weeks.

Miami’s players are already prepared to put this loss behind them.

“I would say the message from Mike [McDaniel] was don’t blink,” Tagovailoa said. “There’s a lot of football left, continue to look at the guy next to you, continue to trust him, continue to keep playing and remember what you play for. It’s tough when you lose and you lose like this, but we’re not going to blink. We’re going to continue to do what we do. We’re going to go back in.

“We’re going to work on the things that need to be fixed and need to be corrected. I can promise you one thing — we’ll definitely be better from this.”