MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Josh Allen threw a go-ahead touchdown pass to Dawson Knox midway through the fourth quarter, and the Buffalo Bills won their fourth straight AFC East title, rallying past the Miami Dolphins 21-14 on Sunday night.
Allen made things difficult for the Bills with three turnovers in Miami territory, but he came through at the end to help Buffalo earn the No. 2 seed in the conference. The Bills, who didn’t clinch a playoff berth until Tennessee beat Jacksonville earlier Sunday, will host seventh-seeded Pittsburgh in the wild-card round on Sunday.
Buffalo was 5-5 in mid-November and faced long odds just to make the playoffs, but went 6-1 down the stretch, including five straight wins to finish the season, to get in with plenty of momentum.
Miami, which made the postseason with its Week 16 win over Dallas, fell to the sixth seed and will play at AFC West champion Kansas City on Saturday night.
The Bills dominated time of possession and outgained Miami by nearly 200 yards, but Buffalo trailed 14-7 before Deonte Harty returned a punt 96 yards for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter.
Buffalo forced a three-and-out, and Allen directed an eight-play, 74-yard drive, capped by his 5-yard toss to Knox with 4:52 left.
Miami had one last chance, but Taylor Rapp intercepted Tua Tagovailoa on a pass intended for Chase Claypool with 1:13 left.
Allen finished 30 of 38 for 359 yards and two TDs. He was intercepted on back-to-back drives to open the game, and he squandered another scoring chance when he completed a pass to Ty Johnson short of the goal line at the end of the first half, allowing time to expire.
A promising Buffalo drive in the third quarter ended when Allen was strip-sacked by Christian Wilkins.
Tagovailoa finished 17 of 27 for 173 yards with two interceptions. He had a 3-yard touchdown throw to Tyreek Hill in the second quarter. Rookie running back De’Von Achane’s shifty 25-yard score in the second quarter put Miami ahead 7-0.
For Miami, there’s a snowstorm that forecasters say might bring several inches of snow to Kansas City later this week, and the low temperature there on Saturday night is expected to be somewhere around zero.
It’s a cold reality for the Miami Dolphins.
They lost to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday night in what essentially was the AFC East championship game – missing out on a chance to be the No. 2 seed and win a division title for the first time in 15 years. The final: Bills 21, Dolphins 14, and a Miami team that entered December with a 2½-game lead in the division race fell short in the end.
The last gasp came with 1:13 left, when Tua Tagovailoa — an MVP candidate, it seemed, for much of the season — threw his second interception of the night.
So now, a short week awaits, and so do odds that’ll likely be piled considerably higher than that new snow in Kansas City will be next weekend. The Dolphins fell from No. 2 to No. 6 in the AFC and now have to pack the parkas and mittens for a trip to visit the Chiefs on Saturday night.
Still unclear: who’ll actually be playing for Miami.
The Dolphins already knew they had lost top defenders Jaelan Phillips (Achilles tendon) and Bradley Chubb (knee) to season-ending injuries. Cornerback Xavien Howard was among those also out Sunday, along with the team’s touchdown-record-setting running back Raheem Mostert and speedy receiver Jaylen Waddle. A slew of other players, top receiver Tyreek Hill among them, are also dealing with injury issues. Linebacker Jerome Baker was hobbling throughout the second half.
And it all got worse against the Bills with the departure of a pair of edge rushers. Andrew Van Ginkel left Sunday night with a foot injury and Cameron Goode was carted off with a knee injury, one that came as Miami was giving up a 96-yard punt return touchdown to Deonte Hardy that tied the game in the fourth.
For starters, it’s now 15 seasons and counting without an AFC East title for the Dolphins — the 2008 team finished 11-5 to win the division. New England won the first 11 AFC East crowns of that span, and Buffalo has now won the last four.
The only franchises that have gone longer than the Dolphins without winning a division title: Cleveland, Las Vegas and the New York Jets.
The Dolphins have used 13 different starting quarterbacks in those 15 years, along with seven head coaches. There have been zero home playoff games, zero playoff wins and next weekend’s trip to Kansas City will mark the third playoff appearance of that span.
The night was lost. The AFC East was lost. An 11-6 record still goes into the books as the best regular season for the Dolphins in 15 years, though that sort of perspective was difficult to find as the final seconds of Sunday night ticked away.
