The Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills are at the mid-way point of the Week 2 AFC East showdown. It has not been pretty for the Dolphins.
After falling behind 6-0 in the first quarter, Miami had the ball to start the second quarter, having already moved 18-yards on the last play of the first 15-minute period when quarterback Ryan Tannehill found Mike Wallace. The rest of the drive, however, was plain ugly. The second play resulted in a negative five-yard pass from Tannehill to tight end Charles Clay. The third and fourth plays were both sacks on Tannehill, with Kyle Williams recording his second on the day and Jerry Hughes adding one of his own.
The Bills regained possession at their own 47-yard line after the punt, and immediately moved down the field, highlighted by a 30-yard pass from EJ Manuel to Sammy Watkins. The Dolphins defense would once again stiffen, however, the third time on the day they have allowed Buffalo into the red zone before stopping them. For the third time on the day, kicker Dan Carpenter would come on to attempt a field goal, connecting on all three, to give Buffalo a 9-0 lead.
Miami's next possession continued the run of futility for the offense, with dropped passes, a delay of game penalty, and an inability to mount any sort of drive. After a six play possession, in which the team gained 10 yards, Miami again punted.
Buffalo could not mount much of an attack on the next drive, gaining 14-yards on the field play, but stalling immediately after that.
Miami would match the inept drive, however, going three and out on a drive that included the second negative-yardage pass from Tannehill on the day, this time on a pass where he was simply trying to avoid a sack and somehow got the ball to Lamar Miller in the flat.
As seems to be the first half story for this game, the Bills again were able to start moving the ball against the Dolphins, specifically with another long completion to Watkins, this time for 17-yards. Then the Miami defense is able to clamp down and stop the drive. After briefly considering a long field goal attempt for Carpenter, the Bills instead decided to punt, giving the Dolphins the ball with just over two minutes remaining in the half.
With limited time remaining, the Dolphins simply ran the ball at the Bills, and were able to find success for the first time on the day. They did, however, simply run out the clock on the runs, rather than trying to save time with their three timeouts remaining.
The Dolphins trail the Bills 9-0 at halftime. You can join the discussion for the remainder of the game in our second half live thread.