For seven straight meetings, Buffalo treated Miami like a scheduling formality. Then November 9, 2025 arrived, the Dolphins ran for nearly 200 yards, and the pecking order of the AFC East wobbled for an afternoon.
This guide gives you the Buffalo Bills vs Miami Dolphins match player stats from both 2025 games, the season-long numbers behind them, a head-to-head table for every key position, and the biggest changes heading into the 2026 meetings. If you want to know who actually won the individual battles, start here.
In this guide:
- What happened in the two 2025 games
- Quarterback stats: Josh Allen vs Tua Tagovailoa
- Running back stats: Cook vs Achane
- Defensive stats and team comparison
- Series history
- Latest updates for 2026
- Final verdict
Buffalo Bills vs Miami Dolphins Match Player Stats at a Glance
| Game | Result | Venue | Headline performer |
| Week 3, Sept 18, 2025 | Bills 31, Dolphins 21 | Orchard Park | Josh Allen: 213 yards, 3 TD, 134.1 rating |
| Week 10, Nov 9, 2025 | Dolphins 30, Bills 13 | Miami Gardens | De’Von Achane: 225 scrimmage yards, 2 TD |
The series ended 1-1, but the way each game was won tells you more than the split does.
Why the 2025 Bills vs Dolphins Series Mattered
Buffalo entered 2025 with a commanding record against Miami under Sean McDermott, roughly 15-2 over his tenure. Tua Tagovailoa entered the year at 1-8 against the Bills, with nine touchdowns, ten interceptions and 14 sacks in those games. The rivalry looked less like a contest and more like a pattern.
Miami also needed something. It started 2025 at 0-2, and a Thursday night trip to Orchard Park looked like the wrong place to fix that.
Week 3: Bills Control a Closer Game Than the Score Suggests
Buffalo was 2-0 and favored by double digits. The 31-21 final looked comfortable, but the Bills were efficient rather than explosive.
Allen completed 22 of 28 passes (78.6%) for 213 yards and three touchdowns. Tagovailoa finished 22 of 34 for 146 yards, two touchdowns and an interception, a 4.3 yards-per-attempt average that shows how little Miami got downfield.
Week 10: The Dolphins Flip the Script
Miami arrived at 2-7 and Buffalo at 6-3. Nobody circled this one as an upset. Yet Miami rushed for 197 yards, forced three turnovers and won by 17, its widest margin over Buffalo since 2011.
Allen was sacked three times and intercepted once. The Bills ran for just 87 yards as a team, which took away the balance that makes their offense so hard to defend.
Quarterback Stats: Josh Allen vs Tua Tagovailoa
Josh Allen’s Career Numbers Against Miami
Allen’s history against the Dolphins is the most lopsided quarterback matchup in the division.
| Josh Allen vs Dolphins (regular season, before the 2025 games) | Stat |
| Games | 16 |
| Record | 13-3 |
| Passing yards | 4,256 |
| Passing touchdowns | 42 |
| Interceptions | 9 |
| Completion % | 67.2% |
A 42-to-9 touchdown-to-interception ratio is the kind of split that explains the win-loss record without much additional analysis. Miami has been his most productive opponent for passing touchdowns.
Allen’s 2025 Season
Allen’s passing totals were 3,668 yards, 25 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions. The rushing production is what separated his year: 579 yards and 14 touchdowns, the most by any quarterback. He also led all quarterbacks with 1,216 fourth-quarter passing yards.
| Josh Allen, 2025 | Stat |
| Passing yards | 3,668 |
| Passing TD | 25 |
| Rushing yards | 579 |
| Rushing TD | 14 (most among QBs) |
| Total TD | 39 |
| Fourth-quarter passing yards | 1,216 (most among QBs) |
In Week 3 he beat Miami’s coverage underneath and used his legs when it dropped back. In Week 10 the Dolphins’ pass rush and tight coverage held him to a QBR of 32.3, one of his weakest efforts of the season.
Tua Tagovailoa’s Struggles Against Buffalo
Tagovailoa has played well against most of the league and poorly against Buffalo. Outside this rivalry he has been a winning quarterback with a passer rating around 100. Against the Bills his rating sits near 85.
| Tua vs Buffalo, 2025 | C/ATT | Yards | TD | INT | Rating |
| Week 3 (at BUF) | 22/34 | 146 | 2 | 1 | 81.2 |
| Week 10 (vs BUF) | 15/21 | 173 | 2 | 2 | 88.1 |
His Week 10 line was efficient but modest because the running game did the heavy work. With defenses forced to respect the run, play-action looked easy for the first time in this series.
For the full season, Tagovailoa finished with 3,013 passing yards, 20 touchdowns and 17 interceptions. That interception total tied a career high, and his 86.5 passer rating was the lowest since his rookie year.
Head-to-Head: Allen vs Tagovailoa, 2025 Season
| Category | Josh Allen (BUF) | Tua Tagovailoa (MIA) | Edge |
| Passing yards | 3,668 | 3,013 | Bills |
| Passing TD | 25 | 20 | Bills |
| Interceptions | 10 | 17 | Bills |
| Completion % | 69.3% | 67.6% | Bills |
| Passer rating | 102.2 | 86.5 | Bills |
| Rushing yards | 579 | 36 | Bills |
| Rushing TD | 14 | 0 | Bills |
Allen threw five more touchdowns and seven fewer interceptions, and added 14 rushing scores. This was a mismatch in nearly every column.
Running Back Stats: James Cook vs De’Von Achane
If one position decided the 2025 Bills vs Dolphins player stats story, it was running back.
De’Von Achane: The Player Who Changed the Series
The third-year back finished 2025 with 1,350 rushing yards and a league-leading 5.8 yards per carry. He added 67 catches for 488 yards, giving him 1,838 scrimmage yards, fifth in the NFL.
| De’Von Achane, Week 10 vs Bills | Stat |
| Carries | 22 |
| Rushing yards | 174 |
| Rushing TD | 2 |
| Receptions | 4 |
| Receiving yards | 51 |
| Scrimmage yards | 225 |
Both touchdowns came in the fourth quarter, including a 59-yard run that finished the game. The contrast with Week 3 is sharp. In September Buffalo held him to 62 rushing yards. By November it had no answer.
James Cook: Buffalo’s Most Productive Back in Decades
In 2025, Cook ran for 1,621 yards, the most for a Bills player since O.J.Simpson in 1976, and led the NFL. It was his third straight 1,000-yard season, a mark only Thurman Thomas and Simpson had reached before him in Buffalo.
| James Cook, 2025 | Stat |
| Rushing yards | 1,621 (led NFL) |
| Rushing TD | 12 |
| Yards per carry | 5.2 |
| Receptions | 32 |
| Receiving yards | 225 |
Against Miami he ran 15 times for 92 yards in Week 3, then 13 times for 53 yards in Week 10. When Cook is bottled up, Buffalo leans harder on Allen, and Miami exploited that in November.
Head-to-Head: Cook vs Achane, 2025 Season
| Category | James Cook (BUF) | De’Von Achane (MIA) | Edge |
| Rushing yards | 1,621 | 1,350 | Bills |
| Yards per carry | 5.2 | 5.8 | Dolphins |
| Receptions | 32 | 67 | Dolphins |
| Receiving yards | 225 | 488 | Dolphins |
| Scrimmage yards | 1,846 | 1,838 | Bills (narrowly) |
| Best game in the series | 92 yards (Wk 3) | 225 scrimmage yards (Wk 10) | Dolphins |
Cook was the better pure runner by volume. When the series was on the line, Achane delivered because he was the more explosive and versatile player.
Defensive Player Stats: Who Controlled the Line of Scrimmage?
Offensive numbers get the headlines, but the defensive stats show why the two games diverged.
Buffalo’s Defense
Buffalo allowed just 163 passing yards per game in 2025, the best figure in the league. That showed in Week 3, when Miami managed only 146 passing yards and threw an interception. The weakness was against the run. Miami gained 197 rushing yards in Week 10, and Buffalo’s run defense ranked 22nd for the year.
Miami’s Defense
Miami forced three turnovers in Week 10, two interceptions and a fumble recovery. Defensive tackle Zach Sieler sacked Allen in that game and recorded 10 tackles for loss for the third consecutive season, while linebacker Jordyn Brooks led the NFL with 183 tackles.
Head-to-Head: Team Defense, 2025
| Stat | Bills | Dolphins | Edge |
| Points allowed per game | 21.5 (12th) | 24.8 (25th) | Bills |
| Passing yards allowed per game | 163 (1st) | 221 (18th) | Bills |
| Rushing yards allowed per game | 128 (22nd) | 131 (24th) | Bills (slightly) |
| Takeaways | 24 (10th) | 18 (24th) | Bills |
Buffalo was better in every defensive category, which makes Week 10 more notable. The Dolphins won by exploiting the Bills’ one real weakness, not by out-playing them across the board.
Series History: Recent Bills vs Dolphins Results
| Date | Result | Location |
| Sept 18, 2025 | Bills 31, Dolphins 21 | Orchard Park |
| Nov 9, 2025 | Dolphins 30, Bills 13 | Miami Gardens |
| Nov 3, 2024 | Bills 30, Dolphins 27 | Orchard Park |
| Sept 12, 2024 | Bills 31, Dolphins 10 | Miami Gardens |
| Jan 7, 2024 | Bills 21, Dolphins 14 | Orchard Park |
The Week 10 result ended a seven-game losing streak for Miami. Their previous win in the series came in Week 3 of the 2022 season. Even with that upset, Buffalo has won the large majority of meetings in the last four seasons, and the two-year picture still favors the Bills.
Latest Updates: What Changed Before the 2026 Meetings
The 2025 stats are only half the story. The 2026 version of this rivalry looks very different, and several of the names in the tables above are no longer in the same roles.
Tua Tagovailoa Is Gone From Miami
The Dolphins moved on from Tagovailoa after the 2025 season, and he signed with the Atlanta Falcons. For the first time since 2019, Miami starts a season without him. Malik Willis is now the starting quarterback, and his first Buffalo game will be a different kind of test than anything Tua faced.
New Head Coaches on Both Sidelines
Miami fired Mike McDaniel and hired Jeff Hafley, the former Green Bay defensive coordinator, who is now building a defense-first identity. General manager Jon-Eric Sullivan is running football operations.
Buffalo made its own change. Sean McDermott was dismissed, and offensive coordinator Joe Brady was promoted to head coach. Pete Carmichael Jr. is now the offensive coordinator, and Jim Leonhard runs the defense.
Where Both Teams Stand Now
Brady started his head coaching career with two wins. Buffalo opened the season 3-1, and Allen became the fastest quarterback in league history to reach 300 regular-season touchdowns, doing it in 129 games. Cook remains the focal point of the run game, and DJ Moore arrived via trade as the top receiver.
Miami has had a much harder start. The Dolphins began 2026 with a 27-13 loss at Las Vegas and sit winless through the first five games. Preseason projections were already low, with most analysts placing Miami’s win total near or below the betting line of 4.5. Wide receiver Jaylen Waddle was traded to Denver, and Achane remains the biggest returning name on offense.
2026 Bills vs Dolphins Dates
- Week 11, Sunday, Nov. 22, 1 p.m. ET: Dolphins at Bills, in Buffalo’s new Highmark Stadium.
- Week 17, Sunday, Jan. 3, 1 p.m. ET: Bills at Dolphins, at Hard Rock Stadium.
Schedules can shift for broadcast reasons, so check the NFL’s official site before planning travel.
2026 Head-to-Head Preview: Bills vs Dolphins
| Category | Buffalo Bills | Miami Dolphins |
| Head coach | Joe Brady (first season) | Jeff Hafley (first season) |
| Quarterback | Josh Allen | Malik Willis |
| Lead back | James Cook | De’Von Achane |
| Top new weapon | DJ Moore (WR) | Rebuilt receiver group |
| Defensive coordinator | Jim Leonhard | Hafley’s staff |
| Latest confirmed record | 3-1 (before Week 5) | 0-5 |
| 2026 outlook | Playoff contender | Rebuild |
On paper the gap has widened. Buffalo returns the core of an offense that was already elite, while Miami starts over at quarterback, head coach and receiver.
What the Player Stats Say About the 2026 Matchups
Achane is still the swing factor. His 225-yard game proved that Miami’s best path to beating Buffalo is a run-heavy script. With a new quarterback, the Dolphins will likely lean on him even more.
Buffalo’s run defense is the soft spot. It gave up 197 yards in Week 10 and ranked in the bottom third for the year. A new defensive coordinator has a chance to fix that, but it is the number to watch in November.
Allen at home is a different problem. Against Miami he has been a consistent winner, and the new stadium and a new coaching staff are unlikely to change that.
Cook’s workload tells you who is in control. When he gets 20 carries, Buffalo usually wins. When Miami holds him under 4 yards a carry, the Bills become easier to defend.
Final Verdict: The Bills vs Dolphins Player Stats Tell Two Stories
The 2025 numbers show a rivalry that remains lopsided. Allen beat Tagovailoa in nearly every statistical category, Cook posted the best rushing season by a Bill in nearly half a century, and Buffalo’s pass defense was the best in the NFL.
But Week 10 is a reminder that individual stats do not decide games on their own. One running back, 225 scrimmage yards and a defense that created three takeaways were enough to flip a result nobody expected.
Heading into 2026, the question is no longer whether Tagovailoa can finally beat Buffalo. It is whether a rebuilding Miami team can hang with a Bills roster that kept its stars and changed its coach. The first test arrives on November 22.
