Dolphins gain no ground on AFC East foes in Week 3 — and have the officials to thank
Josh Allen is amazing!
Josh Allen is a liability.
Josh Allen is a winner.
All three sentences were true at various points Sunday afternoon.
Here’s one more that’s true:
Josh Allen is two games up on the Dolphins and owns the tiebreaker.
And in the end, that’s the most important development of the third Sunday of the season.
While the Dolphins watched, fresh off their first win of the season, Allen and the Bills raced to a 25-point lead over the Rams, only to surrender 29 unanswered and nearly lose for the first time this season.
Then the officials bailed them out.
In the game’s final seconds, refs threw a highly questionable fourth-down pass interference flag on cornerback Darious Williams. While there was some contact between Williams and Bills receiver Gabriel Davis on the incompletion, it appeared that Davis was the initiator.
Regardless, the Bills were awarded first and goal at the 3. A play later, Allen connected with Tyler Kroft on a three-yard touchdown pass, Allen’s fourth of the game.
As a result, the Bills remained unbeaten three weeks into the season. Combine that with the Patriots’ comfortable home victory over the Raiders and the Dolphins even after beating the Jaguars gained no ground on the teams they’re chasing in the AFC East. (New England and Cam Newton improved to 2-1).
Next week’s schedule: The Dolphins host the Seahawks, the Patriots visit the defending champion Chiefs and the Bills are at the Raiders.
“Winning is hard in the league. So when we get us a win, we really like winning, as everybody does,” Dolphins receiver Preston Williams said. “We are going to use this motivation going into next week. We’ve got a good opponent coming up so we just want to play a good executed game like we did, and see what we’re going to do. We’re going to work hard this week and see what the outcome is going to be next week.”
Dolphins notes and quotes
▪ The most encouraging part of cornerback Xavien Howard’s Thursday night wasn’t his game-sealing interception.
Rather, it was final snap count: 66 out of 66. Translation: After season-ending knee surgery and no real training camp to speak of, Howard felt healthy enough to go the distance against the Jaguars.
“I feel great,” said Howard, who was both on the physically unable to perform and reserve/COVID-19 lists during training camp. “I’ve played three games so far, so I feel good.”
He added: “I want to be on the field every play. I don’t have to speak to the coaches about nothing. I’m healthy. I’m out there if I’m healthy.”
The news seems to be just as good for Williams, who tore his ACL midway through last season. After a shaky first two weeks, which included a dropped touchdown pass in a three-point loss, he hung onto both throws his way Thursday night.
“I feel like my knee is getting better with more time,” he said. “It will be a year in November, so I’m getting close to that year mark. It’s definitely feeling better every game.”
▪ The Dolphins’ offensive line hasn’t been perfect, but it’s been leaps and bounds better than it was a year ago. Ereck Flowers and Ted Karras have been upgrades. But the real difference has been the play of rookies Austin Jackson (left tackle) and Solomon Kindley (right guard).
They, like the other three starters on the line, have played all 198 snaps this year. And they’ve been impactful snaps.
“They both work extremely hard and want to do the right things,” Karras said. “I think they have great attitudes and just really a willingness to try to get better every day. I think Solomon is a mauler. It’s fun to play next to a guy like that — a guy that can come in and really move bodies and clean out the pocket on certain things.
“And then Austin Jackson, 21 years old playing left tackle in the league, that’s very, very impressive and I told those guys last night that I am very impressed with them, proud of them and they’re doing just a lot of great things. We’ve got to keep moving forward going into Week 4 now and we’ve just got to keep getting better.”
