ORCHARD PARK — In hindsight, Cole Beasley might have done it differently.
The 32-year-old wide receiver, signed by the Bills in 2018, quickly became a fan favorite.
Playing from the slot, generously listed at 5-foot-8 and 175 pounds, he was outed vertically as, this season, he caught his 34th touchdown pass, the NFL record for a player “under” 5-8.
But, this year, his 192 catches, 2,158 receiving yards and 11 TDs in 37 games were obscured by off-field issues.
Choosing an unpopular side in one of the country’s most intense disagreements, he became the league’s leading voice of anti-vaccination.
It was a position unpopular with most Buffalo fans and it was reduced to vocal criticism during the Bills’ 40-0 home victory over Houston last month.
Every time his name was announced the endearing chants of “Beas” were almost drowned out by unmistakable booing.
HOWEVER, in pro sports there’s a saying that you’re only as good as you last game.
And, on a chilly, gloomy Sunday afternoon at Highmark Stadium, he mostly delighted a crowd of 69,35 witnesses keying a 26-11 Buffalo win over the Dolphins.
He finished with 10 catches for a Bills’ career-best 110 yards.
Eight of them for 89 yards came after the 3-3 halftime tie and a trio of those receptions took place on third down and helped lead to scores.
After a lousy opening 30 minutes in which Miami dominated the offensive statistics as quarterback Josh Allen endured a miserable half — 10-of-17 through the air for 80 yards and a dismal 70.7 passer rating — Beasley got his QB going.
After intermission, Allen went 19-of-23 for 169 yards with touchdown passes of eight yards to Gabriel Davis and 19 to Stefon Diggs while also adding a 7-yard TD run.
As Beasley emphasized, “I have all the confidence in the world in Josh … I think he’s the best quarterback in the league.”
Indeed, the former Wyoming star was also his team’s leading rusher with 55 yards on eight carries, including a 34-yarder.
STILL, with barely 3½ minutes remaining in the game, Buffalo led only 17-11 until it scored a field goal and touchdown to pull away.
The Bills (5-2) came in as 15-point favorites against a Miami team that sunk to an AFC-worst 1-7. Those seven losses have been successive, tying the 2019 team that dropped its first seven of the season
Buffalo has now beaten the Dolphins seven straight games — all quarterbacked by Allen — and outscored them 258-123 over that stretch.
“Really, the biggest takeaway from this game is you’re not always going to come out and score, score, score,” coach Sean McDermott said of fans’ expectations. “This game, like most games in the NFL, it comes down to the fourth quarter. I thought that was good for us a team. Now we’ve got to build on it.”
MEANWHILE, Beasley has undergone a social media epiphany.
After the Houston game he had tweeted, “Only place I get boo’d is at our home stadium. Then some of the same people want me to take pictures and sign autographs. I thought Bills fans were the best in the world? Where’d they go? If the vaccine works then why do vaxxed people need to be protected from unvaxxed? #letemin.”
The post was not well-received even though many in the crowd were chanting “Beas” and not booing. But the feedback was bothersome enough that, after the Bills’ win at Kansas City, he discontinued his Twitter account.
“It’s good to get back to where I wanted to be,” he said of leaving social media. “Doing so is a weight lifted. I’m going to stay off (Twitter). When I first got here, I got away from (social media), and then things happened. The issues that we have at hand … I just felt like I needed to take responsibility for the guys that couldn’t.”
“It’s good for me to get back to where I wanted to be, and it’s not on there,” Beasley added. “The real world is out here and not there. Most people say things on there that you don’t want to hear. I feel like I did the right thing.”
He concluded of Sunday’s game, “Whether some are booing or some are saying, ‘Beas,’ it still felt good playing and they were loud. I enjoyed it either way.”
