ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- The Buffalo Bills' first two quarters after the bye week left much to be desired.
Coming off a tough loss to the Tennessee Titans, the talk all week was about roaring back against a one-win Miami Dolphins team. Instead, the Bills looked sluggish, and the offense scored the fewest points in a half since Week 17 of 2019, when Matt Barkley was the quarterback for much of the game. The Bills were 1-for-6 on third downs and had five first downs in the first half on Sunday, when the score was tied 3-3 at halftime.
In the second half, the offense took quite a turn. After a three-and-out to start the third quarter, the Bills scored on four straight possessions to put the game out of reach, winning 26-11 to improve to 5-2.
The Bills have leaned on an unusual formula they would not necessarily like to continue -- namely, not starting as strong as they finish. In the team's five wins, the Bills have outscored opponents by 76 points compared to 54 in the first half.
What changed specifically against Miami in the second half? A couple of things. One of them, according to Bills left tackle Dion Dawkins, comes with an interesting moniker.
"We call it just having our piss hot," Dawkins said. "Just playing with that urgency and not moseying around and not just jogging. We’re flying to the football and being us."
That and some smart second-half adjustments.
The Dolphins were able to blitz quarterback Josh Allen successfully in the first half, something most teams had not been attempting often this season. Allen went into Week 8 facing blitzes at the second-lowest rate in the NFL (16%). Miami blitzed him 25 times, tied for his third-most in a game in his career (56%).
"I think we were spinning the dial a little bit trying to find answers," Bills coach Sean McDermott said. "Give Miami credit, they had us a little bit off balance there in the first half and did some things quite honestly that they had success with in that first game but didn't do them as much in that first game as they came out today and did."
It worked for the Dolphins early. Allen was 3-of-9 for 17 yards against the blitz in the first half. After halftime, however, the Bills offense adjusted, and Allen completed 11-of-15 throws when facing the blitz for 91 yards and two touchdowns.
"They had a good game plan early and it just took us a while," Allen said. "We gotta find a way to do it earlier and not put ourselves in a bind like that and rely on the defense to go out there and make plays like they did today. Just quicker adjustments by me and understanding what the defense is trying to do and get us into a good situation."
Since Week 1, the Bills have scored coming out of halftime in all but two games. One of those scoring drives was for a touchdown in the team's first win this season against the Dolphins, 35-0. Allen and the offense came out and ran quick, short passes with the quarterback in shotgun much of the drive. While the offense had been sputtering earlier in the game -- six consecutive drives without points -- it took just over three minutes to march downfield and take a three-score lead.
And the success in the second half Sunday also came on short passes. The Bills sustained three drives of nine-plus plays with Allen averaging 3.3 yards per completion, second lowest of his career. Allen finished the day going 29-of-42 (69%) for 249 yards, two passing touchdowns and one rushing score.
He completed 13 screen passes, the most in a game by a quarterback in the past 10 seasons. Wide receiver Cole Beasley became more involved in the second half, finishing with 110 yards, his first time over 100 yards this season.
"Finally, he got some opportunities, and he made some plays for us, huge plays that helped us move the ball," Allen said of Beasley. "Any given week, guys understand that it could be their time and they have to be ready to go. And he was today."
Once the Bills offense got on track, it didn't let up. Safety Jordan Poyer had a late interception of Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, giving Buffalo the ball back with 2:21 to go and 20-11 lead. Instead of safe running plays and kneeling it out to end the game, Allen ran it in for another score.
About those turnovers: The Bills have adjusted well in second halves, not turning the ball over once and coming away with three more takeaways in the final two quarters. They have allowed the lowest touchdown-to-interception ratio in the second half of games (0.5).
A game after allowing the Titans to score on all of their full possessions from the second quarter on, the Bills allowed Miami only one drive of more than 10 yards in the second half out of six possessions.
Another positive development for the Bills was the play of defensive tackle Ed Oliver. While he didn't show up much in the stat sheet -- two tackles and a tackle for loss -- Oliver dominated the line of scrimmage throughout the game and appeared almost unblockable at times.
"I just felt free," Oliver said. "I was just out there just playing, just feeling free, playing, hitting the quarterback. When you're having so much fun, it's hard to tell how good you're playing. You're just having fun."
With their next two games against the Jacksonville Jaguars (1-6) and the New York Jets (2-5), the Bills should have more time to sort through the first-half kinks.