Greg Cote: Diamond in a mud bog as Dolphins score 30-13 home upset of Bills

Greg Cote, Miami Herald on Nov 9, 2025

Published in Football

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MIAMI — Admit it. The game started with groans of “Here we go again” across South Florida, from Dolfans everywhere. Bags would be back on heads, right? A calamitous season would be sinking yet further.

Fullback Alec Ingold was flagged for a false start before the first snap. An angry coach Mike McDaniel thought it would be smart to then call a timeout before the clock had even begun. The series ended (of course) with a Tua Tagovailoa interception.

And the Bills-dominant crowd at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium howled with derision for the hapless Fins. The crowd was awash in blue. The mood of Dolfans was that color, too.

Here we go again.

But no!

The NFL happened.

What has been a bad defense rose up like champs. Tagovailoa overcame that early pick to reinvigorate flagging faith in him. De’Von Achane was terrific.

And the Dolphins beat, no, whupped, the nemesis Bills, 30-13.

“There was some complementary football at its finest,” McDaniel said. “Very proud of our resolve and our focus.”

Said Tagovailoa: “This is one I think the team deserves. They’ve had our number for years. This makes it that much more special.”

For Miami, it was a diamond in a mud bog of a season.

Crazy, this sport, this team, this year.

Just when you want to write off the head coach and the quarterback and blow everything up, this happens.

How did Miami enter Sunday as a 2-7 team with the mettle and fight just shown?

Dolphins were up 16-0 at the half with tour de force defense that had Josh Allen and company under its thumb.

And Tagovailoa shook off that early interception with a 9-yard scoring pass to Malik Washington — capping a ferocious seven-minute, 92-yard drive — and then a 38-yard TD strike to Jaylen Waddle. A missed extra point and a field goal finished the early scoring.

Miami hadn’t had such a lead on its nemesis since 2016. (Hadn’t had a shutout against Buffalo through three quarters since 2003.)

At the half Bills coach Sean McDermott said, “We gotta come out and start playing Buffalo Bills football.”

Just curious, Sean, but would that be the football that hasn’t won anything since the pre-merger Bills won an AFL championship in 1965? Or would that be the brand of Bills ball that last played in a Super Bowl (losing) in 1993?

Do you get to puff up “Buffalo Bills football’ as if it means anything at all, with no results as evidence?

Bills fans share that arrogance as they see their championship window creaking shut. They spent the weekend partying at the Elbo Room bar along Fort Lauderdale Beach before sauntering to Hard Rock feeling all entitled. Why not? Allen was 14-2 vs. Miami. The Bills have owned the Dolphins lately (if not quite the NFL, or now, even the AFC East).

Safe travels back home, Bills fans. While you all are shoveling snow next month, we’ll be down hearing drinking pina coladas.

Buffalo appeared driving for a TD to start the second half (hear we go again?), but Ifeatu Melifonwu had a crucial end-zone interception of Allen.

Bills then drove 98 yards to make it 16-6 (missed two-point try) and then Tua was intercepted again.

Uh-oh. Here we go again?

Not this day.

Achane’s 59-yard scoring run made it 23-6 with six minutes left. A Buffalo scoring pass made it closer with three minutes to play. Then Achane added a late 35-yard TD jaunt for the game of his career.

Achane and Waddle — two big targets by other teams before the NFL trade deadline — were great Sunday. Great Miami rejected offers and are building around them moving forward.

“I’m happy with our collective decision,” McDaniel said. “Never once thought about those dudes not as a Dolphin.”

The Dolphins deserved this game, this feeling.

“They chose to believe throughout the whole thing,” said their coach. “They didn’t believe in their season being over.”

Miami prepares now for a trip to Madrid and a soft(ish) upcoming schedule.

And Bills fans who’d dominated Sunday’s crowd and rented a plane to pull a banner over the stadium? They came to grips with having to return home not only with a loss, but to return home at all ... to Buffalo ... as winter sets in.

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