The Dolphins had no answer for DE Mario Williams and his record breaking night in primetime.
Williams tallied 3.5 sacks on the night moving to eighth in franchise history with 33.5, passing Chris Kelsay (32.5) and Bryce Paup (33.0). He now sits tied for third in the league with teammate Marcell Dareus with 10 sacks in 2014.
Miami's problem with Williams stretches far beyond Thursday night's game. His 13.0 career sacks against the Dolphins are the most by any team in the league. Additionally, QB Ryan Tannehill has been taken down 8.5 times by Williams, making him the defensive end's most frequent victim.
"He had a great game. He went out there and really executed his game plan," DE Jerry Hughes said of Williams. "We talk about it in our room week and week out what to do and to see him go out there and do it, it was great."
Williams is now averaging one sack per game, and is on pace for 16 which would break his career high of 14 set in 2007 with Houston.
But Williams has no interest in personal statistics.
"No, not at all," he said when asked if his individual success gets him excited. "I'm never the type of person who looks at that. At the end of the day, no matter what a player on this team gets individually, somebody helped them get it, so that's how I see it. We just collectively play together and go out and try and put our best foot forward."
Photos of Mario Williams wearing contacts that turn his eyes a fiery red on gameday.
Turnovers are something he said he wished they had gotten more of. With as many times as they got to Tannehill, he felt forcing more fumbles to get the ball on a short field for their offense could have swung the game for Buffalo. Hughes did create one turnover on defense forcing Tannehill to fumble on a scramble play.
The Bills largely stopped Miami Thursday night. The Dolphins' two touchdowns came in the second half. Only three of Miami's drives in the second half were over 40 yards. The other three were 10, one, or went for negative yardage.
"At the end of the day, they were just simply trying keep the ball moving and we know that," said Williams. "The guys up front were definitely trying to get after it. Quick passes and things like that. Like you said, there were some slippery moments out there where guys kind of got mixed up and they got first downs and were able to keep the chains moving.
Not winning on Thursday, the team knows how the playoff picture looks sitting at 5-5. Williams said that there were games earlier in the year that Buffalo should have put in the win column that could have reduced the magnitude of this game. Now there is nothing else to do but figure out what went wrong and start preparing for New York a week from Sunday.
And although the chances are slimmer, the playoffs are not out of the question. There are still six games left in the season and Williams said they're going to make the ground they've lost in their past two outings.
When asked if this game had made him lose hope, he responded with another question, simply saying:
"If that was the case why would we play?"
