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Miami Dolphins @ Buffalo Bills: Risers and Fallers

ByDJ Eberle|
(Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
(Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)

A look back at the Buffalo Bills’ Week 15 win over the Miami Dolphins.

Another win and the Buffalo Bills have moved one step closer to the franchise’s first postseason berth in 17 seasons.

While the game did get close down the stretch, including an opportunity for the Miami Dolphins to tie the game on their last drive before Jay Cutler threw his third interception of the afternoon, Buffalo was in control throughout.

In fact, the Bills never trailed.

Bills offensive coordinator Rick Dennison even called the first half the team’s best half of football of the season.

"“That’s the best half we’ve done as an offense, I think,” Dennison said, via BNBlitz.com. “That’s what I credit to those guys, they really worked hard last week. It was a good group. Miami played very well defensively the last two ball games against two good teams, two good offenses anyway. I think our guys were – they worked hard at it, they studied, they knew what they wanted to get done, and worked at the game plan. They did a good job.”"

Pretty impressive considering Miami was coming off of its best win of the year.

Now, if Buffalo can pull the massive upset against the New England Patriots this weekend, quite the rematch will take place in Week 17.

You know the drill, this column profiles the players who took steps forward and also regressed each week. Welcome to Risers and Fallers.

Risers

Tre’Davious White

Sunday’s stat of the day thanks to Pro Football Focus: If Jay Cutler threw an incompletion on every play, it would have led to a higher passer rating than when he threw Tre’Davious White’s way.

No. That is not a joke.

White was targeted eight times and allowed just three receptions for 58 yards while also registering a pass defense and coming up with the game-sealing interception.

White wasn’t voted to the Pro Bowl earlier this week. But he should have been.

Shareece Wright

Shareece Wright came to play.

He was immediately tested when he entered the game after E.J. Gaines went down with a knee injury, and he made Cutler pay.

Wright intercepted Cutler on his very first play of the game and took it all the way back inside the red zone. The interception led to a Steven Hauschka field goal, which gave Buffalo a 24-6 lead at the time.

Wright was targeted three times and didn’t allow a reception.

Eric Wood

Eric Wood led the charge in what was one of the offensive line’s better outings this season.

Wood earned an 81.9 from Pro Football Focus, which was the Bills’ second-highest grade, on a day where Tyrod Taylor was sacked just twice and the Bills had 340 yards of offense.

The talented center had nice blocks on a pair of LeSean McCoy runs, including a seal of Ndamukong Suh on the 4-yard touchdown run.

Vlad Ducasse

Vlad Ducasse had the toughest assignment of any Bills offensive lineman: Ndamukong Suh.

And he excelled.

Ducasse earned an 81.7 while holding Suh to just seven tackles without allowing the talented defensive tackle to get much pressure on Taylor. Suh finished without registering a sack or quarterback hit.

"“Whenever you go against Suh you’ve got to bring your A game,” Ducasse said, via BNBlitz.com. “He’s still a great player. He’s still capable of doing a lot to disrupt the game. You really have to be tuned in. . . . I got help from all the O-linemen, which made it a little easier blocking him. But whenever you’re going against him you’ve got to be on top of your game.”"

Ducasse even registered a pancake of Dolphins defensive end Terrence Fede.

Fallers

Wide receivers

Collectively, as a whole, it wasn’t a strong showing from the Buffalo wideouts.

Wide receivers only caught four passes against the Dolphins while being targeted nine times, including two by Kelvin Benjamin.

More from BuffaLowDown

Zay Jones was held to a goose egg.

Buffalo’s going to need more out of its wide receivers against the New England Patriots on Sunday.

Ryan Davis

At this point, we’re nitpicking because Buffalo had a very good game overall.

Even Ryan Davis had a good game, registering six tackles, a sack and quarterback hit.

However, he lost contain on a Kenyan Drake 31-yard run. Big plays like that cannot happen, especially against teams like New England.

Next: Buffalo Bills: CB Tre’Davious White snubbed from Pro Bowl

While Davis has done a tremendous job replacing Shaq Lawson, he needs to play with a little more consistency.

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