This one play showcases how Bills are able to mitigate Dolphins’ explosive offense

The Buffalo Bills' ability to disguise coverages is part of their unique success versus the Miami Dolphins.

Chris Seth | Sep 15, 2024

Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

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The Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins squared off in a Thursday night AFC East clash to kick off the NFL’s Week 2. The Dolphins present a unique set of problems for any defense with their remarkable team speed and wunderkind offensive-minded head coach Mike McDaniel. However, the Bills consistently find ways to contain Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, and the Dolphins’ offensive attack.

Buffalo head coach Sean McDermott and defensive coordinator Bobby Babich routinely rotated coverages to encourage hesitation and confusion from Dolphins’ quarterback Tua Tagovailoa Thursday night. Even if the coverage disguise doesn’t result in an incompletion or turnover, it can still impact the offense by eliminating what they had hoped to accomplish. In the split-second world that is NFL decision-making, getting different information than anticipated can throw off the entire play.

Here’s a breakdown of one play from Buffalo’s 31-10 win that encapsulates its defense strategy and success.

The Play: Q1 5:44, 2nd & 10 from the BUF 24

Pre-Snap

Miami has come out in shotgun with 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end). It has three wide receivers to the field, working from outside in, they are Grant DuBose, Tyreek Hill, and Braxton Berrios. Running back Jeff Wilson is offset wide to Tagovailoa's left, and tight end Jonnu Smith is the lone receiver on the boundary. Just before the snap, Berrios crosses the formation in jet motion.

The Bills are in nickel (five defensive backs) with four linemen. From the right defensive end, they are AJ Epenesa, DeWayne Carter, Austin Johnson, and Gregory Rousseau.

The Bills’ cornerbacks are Rasul Douglas (left cornerback at the top of the image) and Christian Benford on the right side. Typically for the Bills in nickel, the fifth defensive back is Taron Johson, but with his injury, Cam Lewis is the extra DB, playing safety and lining up in the box on the defensive left for this play. Taylor Rapp is the other box safety, and Damar Hamlin is lined up in the deep middle.

The initial presentation of the coverage suggests Cover 3, and this alters the outcome for Tagovailoa, as we’ll see below. What are the hints that this is Cover 3? Having both the strong safety (Rapp) and another defensive back (Lewis) in the box is the first indicator for Tagovailoa. Also, Benford isn’t over any particular receiver. In standard Cover 3, the deep safety would handle the middle third while the two outside corners would drop and be responsible for the outside thirds. The arrows in this image indicate the read or presentation, not player movement.

Post Snap

At the snap, the Bills switch to Cover 2. Lewis and Rapp retreat to deep halves, and Hamlin is playing the middle hole from the top down in a robber style. Douglas and Benford respond to the players in their respective zones, so Douglas matches up with DuBose. Benford gets wider and deeper with Berrios to help close the honey hole while also keeping his eyes in the backfield.

Expecting Douglas to drop back into a deep third, Tagovailoa immediately looks to DuBose, but Douglas never back-peddled away and is right with the Dolphins’ receiver. The second read is Hill on the crossing pattern, but Terrel Bernard is sitting in the hook/curl ready to jump that route.

For all of the way Bills Mafia likes to make fun of Tagovailoa's game, he is a remarkably quick decision-maker. Here, he moves on from DuBose before he even really settles the ball in his hands. The passer manages to make it to his fourth read, passing over Hill and Smith before finding his outlet with Wilson in the flat.

Bernard and Dorian Williams have done a good job in tracking receivers through their zone while also keeping their eyes in the backfield.

This last shot shows Williams, Hamlin, and Bernard rallying to the tackle. Bernard is circled because you can see him dip under the potential block from Hill and then he manages to trip Wilson up to limit the gain.

Conclusion

From snap to throw on this one play was 2.49 seconds. Tagovailoa is an elite processor and consistently among the league's quickest in average time to throw, but most other quarterbacks are far more likely to succumb to the pass rush when trying to make it through so many reads. His average Time to Throw (TTT) was the fastest in the NFL in 2023 at 2.33 seconds. His TTT against the Bills on Thursday night was 2.68 seconds. That is still very fast, but it helps move the Dolphins from virtually impossible to defend to scoring 10 points in Week 2 and being 1-12 against Buffalo in their last 13 games.

The initial presentation of Cover 3 morphing into Cover 2 created enough hesitation to force the check down. Keeping the pass in front and discouraging even the attempt at an explosive play means the offense has to play mistake-free football, which Tagovailoa was unable to do Thursday night.

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