Cole Beasley bails out the Bills after their bad start as they beat the lowly Dolphins

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. – What a mess that was most of Sunday afternoon for the Buffalo offense. Rare has been the day when Josh Allen and company have looked so out of sync and, let’s be honest, downright lousy.

But the Dolphins being the Dolphins, things eventually turned in the second half when Allen put together four consecutive scoring drives – one aided by a Jordan Poyer interception in the final three minutes – that created just enough separation for a 26-11 victory that was much closer than that final score would indicate.

I knew going into this game that Miami was going to be a much tougher opponent than it was in Week 2. Losing six in a row, not to mention the embarrassing way they were beaten in the first game, is the definition of a wounded and motivated animal, and the Dolphins were.

The better team won, but the Bills need to get some of their offensive issues ironed out.

Miami came into the game ranked dead last in yards allowed per game and 31st in points allowed, but Brian Flores’ guys – who have been embarrassed in six consecutive games by the Buffalo offense – came to play.

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They dominated Buffalo’s offense for the entire first half and part of the third quarter before Allen finally got things rolling with back-to-back touchdown drives. But that was as sickly as the Bills' offense has looked since the second half of the Pittsburgh game on opening day. 

The Bills had no rhythm, and I blame some of that on lack of execution, some of it on the Dolphins just playing very well, but also in Brian Daboll’s game plan and play-calling.

There are days when he just dials up winning play after winning play, and there are days like this one when nothing was really working, at least until Allen managed to work his way through the progression to find Cole Beasley, who had a great day.

This offense is not functioning like it did a year ago, and that’s a tough ask because it was so good. However, it needs to be better than it was Sunday.

If not for the clutch catches made by Beasley, I’m not sure Buffalo would have won the game. He had a great day and was the lone offensive player you could say that about.

With the score tied 3-3 and the offense in complete disarray, Beasley came up with the play of the game when he got open and caught a 15-yard pass that converted a third-and-14 at the Buffalo 21. That play enabled the Bills to launch a 13-play, 80-yard TD drive, and along the way Beasley had three other catches, totaling 44 yards for the drive.

And then on the next possession, Beasley converted a third-and-13 at the Miami 33 with a 14-yard catch that set up Allen’s 19-yard blitz-beating touchdown pass to Stefon Diggs, which essentially locked up the game.

Beasley finished with 10 catches for 110 yards on a day when Emmanuel Sanders was shut out. 

I’ve been willing to give Miami's Tua Tagovailoa the benefit of the doubt. He’s young, he missed a chunk of last year and then a chunk of this year, so he lacks experience, and he’s playing with very little talent around him in this Miami offense. But man, he’s just not very good, and the biggest problem is his lack of arm strength.

The Miami offense can’t function because either Tagovailoa can’t throw the ball downfield, or the coaching staff won’t let him. In today’s NFL, you have to be able to bite off chunks of yardage in the passing game. You can’t dink and dunk all day, especially against a defense like Buffalo’s, which thrives in that situation.

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana.