MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Miami Dolphins’ fate against the Buffalo Bills in Week 9 was sealed in the span of four plays in the final minute of regulation.
And decisions by the officials played as big of a role as anything Josh Allen did in Buffalo’s 30-27 victory. The Bills were only able to get in position for a 61-yard Tyler Bass field goal because two critical exchanges went their way.
Miami Dolphins’ Tough Officiating Luck in Week 9
The first was the 15-yard helmet-to-helmet personal foul penalty assessed to Jordan Poyer on a 3rd-and-9 incompletion from the Buffalo 31.
The drive-extending call was hard to argue. Poyer launched into Keon Coleman and struck the Buffalo receiver’s facemask with his helmet.
jordan poyer is still helping the bills win games❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/04sA0OOAmU
— ً (@cashout4kt) November 3, 2024
But the second decision was far more suspect. The refs appeared to let Mack Hollins spot the ball himself after the Dolphins tackled Hollins in bounds with some 30 seconds left on the clock and the Bills out of timeouts.
Officials are the only ones allowed to spot the ball. By allowing the Bills to snap the ball where Hollins placed it, the refs might have given Buffalo the time needed to set up Bass’ field-goal attempt with 10 seconds left.
For his part, head coach Mike McDaniel took the high road Monday, even though that Bass kick might have ended any realistic hopes the Dolphins had of making the playoffs.
“I think, based upon how I understand the rules, that if you were able to spot things on your own, it does save time,” McDaniel said. “Time was of the essence in that period of the game. But that’s not the reason why we lost the game.
“We had plenty of controllables that are in our hands. I’ll just kind of leave it at that. The gripe is one thing. Another thing is how I want the team and the players to look at it. Officials do have pluses and minuses every game. We got to focus on defending the field and not getting into the range of a field-goal kicker with a strong leg.”
As for the Poyer hit, McDaniel declined to speculate if Miami’s safety would be fined by the league but suggested for the second straight day that he didn’t have an issue with the call.
“I just know that you leave yourself vulnerable anytime you leave the strike zone,” McDaniel said. “I have no question in my mind that Jordan had the right intent.
“It’s a skill to be able to identify a moving target and then adjust your strike zone based upon if they’re jumping or not in a millisecond. And you know, I think his intent was correct. It didn’t surprise me that it got called because there was contact there.
“But, you know, I’ll leave it to the league to assess if that’s fineable or not. That’s out of my expertise. I would say.”