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Week 2: Special Teams Were Real Special
Big Plays By Special Teams Led Dominating Effort On All Sides.
by Steve Saslow
Here are our position by position grades:
Quarterback:
EJ Manuel threw pretty well early and was in good command of the offense. He tossed a nice deep ball to Watkins that was knocked away at last second. Shortarmed a pass on 3rd down when he saw the blitz come forcing them to settle for three in the first quarter. His sideline bomb to Chandler was on target as well. Missed in open Watkins on a slant pattern that would have been a touchdown. Finally connected for a touchdown to Watkins late in the third quarter. Finished 16 of 26 for 202 yards and a 98.6 QB rating without throwing a pick or being sacked.
Grade A-: Managed the game very well.
Running Backs:
C.J. Spiller was hobbled early but broke out with a 47 yard run in the third quarter. Finished with a game high 69 yards on 12 carries.
Fred Jackson was very busy early with five runs and two catches on the first two series. He had a big 28 yard reception on the Bills first field goal drive. Finished with 27 yards receiving and 24 on the ground.
Boobie Dixon had two carries for three yards.
Frank Summers had seven yards on two carries.
Grade B: Made plays when they had to but small 3.4 yard per carry average.
Receivers:
Sammy Watkins got wide open for a 28 yard completion but couldn't come up with a bomb from Manuel that would have been a touchdown. It got it knocked away at the last second and re-aggravated his rib injury. He came back and had a big third down conversion on a Bills field goal drive. Had a nice 30 yard catch and run setting up the third field goal but again couldn't hook up with Manuel for the TD as a slant pass was too far inside for him when he beat his man. He finally caught his first TD pass late in the third quarter as he had the first 100 yard receiving game by a Bills rookie since 2004.
Robert Woods had 1 catch for 5 yards.
Mike Williams also had just one catch for three yards.
Marquise Goodwin also touched the football once and gained four yards on the reverse.
Scott Chandler had a great tip toe 22 yard catch that he was awarded after a review. It set up the Bills 2nd FG. He had one other catch for three yards.
Chris Gragg had a nice 14 yard catch and run on a tight end screen.
Grade C: Watkins gets an A while everyone else gets an F.
Offensive Line:
Seantrel Henderson did a solid job against Cameron Wake and sprung Spiller's big run.
Grade B+: Did a great job keeping Manuel upright as he was not sacked and barely touched. Got no push in the run game.
Defensive Line:
Mario Williams got a first quarter sack and a pressure in the second quarter forcing Tannehill to run it and force a punt.
Marcell Dareus knocked a pass down in the second quarter.
Kyle Williams bulled his way up the middle for a sack.
Jerry Hughes got a sack the play after Kyle's sack.
Manny Lawson was in on three tackles and knocked down a pass.
Stefan Charles had the only sack of the second half.
Grade A: Nice four sack effort from this unit.
Linebackers:
Brandon Spikes only had one assist and was quiet but Miami only had 80 yards rushing.
Nigel Bradham was banged up early but came back in the game. He made the hit on Knowshon Moreno that knocked him out of the game. Got called for an illegal contact penalty. Then made a big hit on a wide receiver screen. Got good pressure forcing a pass that lost a yard.
Preston Brown was busy leading the way with 13 tackles.
Grade A: Great effort from this undermanned unit.
Secondary:
Stephon Gilmore gave up Miami's only touchdown as Wallace made a great one handed grab.
Leodis McKelvin didn't start but rotated in for Graham and Gilmore and had an interception in the final minute.
Nickell Robey was solid in coverage.
Corey Graham got the start over McKelvin after a solid performance last week against Chicago. He paid dividends right away with a pass breakup of a bomb to Mike Wallace. Defended three passes in all and had 10 tackles in all.
Aaron Williams was solid and had seven tackles with two of them going for a loss.
Da'Norris Searcy had a good game with five tackles, one for loss and a pass defensed.
Grade A: Held Tannehill to 241 mostly harmless passing yards.
Special Teams:
Colton Schmidt had four punts with three going inside the 20 and a 33.5 yard average. The low average was partly because of punts near midfield.
Dan Carpenter hit five of six field goal attempts and both extra points.
Leodis McKelvin had two returns for 16 yards.
C.J. Spiller had the big 102 yard kick return for a score and another 20 yarder.
Coverage Units Boobie Dixon had the first blocked punt by the Bills since 2006 setting up their second field goal. Randell Johnson recovered a muffed punt. Gave up three kickoff returns for just 57 yards and 7 yards on two punt returns.
Grade A+: Best special teams performance in years.
Coaching:
Doug Marrone I agreed with his decision to punt late in the first half from the Dolphins 40 on a 4th and 4 play. The defense was dominating at the time and pin them back. Marrone had his team focused and prepared and the dominated from the start.
Nathaniel Hackett His unit didn't have to do too much but managed the game fine and when they needed a big drive they got it. Would have liked a few more 7s put up on the board instead of 3s but still a great win.
Jim Schwartz had his unit looking an awful lot like last year's unit as they had four sacks.
Grade A+: Nice to be 2-0.
 Bills Blitz
NFL.com Gamebook
Dolphins Game Preview
Gameday Homepage
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