Fans who search for Buffalo Bills vs Miami Dolphins match player stats usually want to know who actually played well, not only who won. This breakdown covers the Week 10 meeting on November 9, 2025, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens. The Dolphins won 30-13, and running back De’Von Achane carried the load with 174 rushing yards and two touchdowns.
Below you will find the key numbers for quarterbacks, runners, receivers, and defenders, a side-by-side team comparison, and a look at how the game slipped away from Buffalo. The figures come from published box score data, and I have kept to numbers that were confirmed rather than filling gaps with guesses.
Who Won and Who Played Best? The Short Answer
The Miami Dolphins beat the Buffalo Bills 30-13 on November 9, 2025, at Hard Rock Stadium. Running back De’Von Achane was the standout performer, carrying 22 times for 174 yards and two touchdowns. Josh Allen put up the biggest passing total of the day, 306 yards on 28 of 40, but he also threw an interception, and Buffalo lost two fumbles.
Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa finished 15 of 21 for 173 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions. It was not a perfect afternoon for him, yet the Dolphins made the plays that mattered. They led 16-0 at halftime, and Buffalo did not score until the fourth quarter.
Background: What Was at Stake in This AFC East Meeting
The Buffalo Bills arrived in South Florida as the clear favorite. According to Covers, they were laying 8.5 points. They were also coming off back-to-back wins, including a victory over Kansas City, and they had beaten Miami seven straight times, one of those in the playoffs. Buffalo had won 16 of the previous 18 meetings in the series since 2017.
The Miami Dolphins came in at 2-7 and had little to lose. Their last meeting with Buffalo, on September 18, 2025, ended in a 31-21 Bills win. That history made the result in November more surprising. The game was played in 84-degree heat in front of 66,030 fans, with Ron Torbert leading the officiating crew.
For Buffalo, the loss stung because the box score looked competitive in some areas. For Miami, it was proof that a struggling team can still win a divisional game when the run game works and the defense holds firm late.
Buffalo Bills vs Miami Dolphins Match Player Stats
The table below pulls together the headline individual numbers from the game. These are the leaders in each major category, not a full roster list.
| Player | Team | Position | Key Stats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Josh Allen | Bills | QB | 28/40, 306 yards, 1 INT |
| Tua Tagovailoa | Dolphins | QB | 15/21, 173 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT |
| De’Von Achane | Dolphins | RB | 22 carries, 174 yards, 2 TD |
| James Cook III | Bills | RB | 13 carries, 53 yards |
| Jaylen Waddle | Dolphins | WR | 5 catches, 84 yards, 1 TD |
| Khalil Shakir | Bills | WR | 7 catches, 58 yards |
| Jordyn Brooks | Dolphins | LB | 12 tackles (6 solo) |
| Jordan Poyer | Dolphins | S | 8 tackles (3 solo) |
| Zach Sieler | Dolphins | DT | 1 sack |
Passing: Allen’s Volume vs Tagovailoa’s Efficiency
Allen threw the ball 40 times and completed 28, a completion rate of 70 percent. His 306 passing yards were the most of any player in the game. After three sacks that cost 17 yards, Buffalo’s net passing total came to 289 yards. The problem was what happened around those numbers: an interception, two lost fumbles, and a red zone trip that ended without points.
Tagovailoa threw far less, only 21 passes, but averaged 8.2 yards per attempt. He completed about 71 percent of his throws and tossed two touchdowns. The two interceptions are the blemish on his line, and they gave Buffalo chances that the offense could not turn into points until late. Miami was never sacked, which helped keep the offense in rhythm.
Rushing: Achane Was the Difference
The most lopsided matchup of the day was on the ground. Achane’s 174 yards on 22 carries works out to nearly 7.9 yards per attempt. The rest of Miami’s rushing attack was modest: the other ten carries added only 23 yards. In other words, one player supplied almost the entire rushing production, and it was enough.
For Buffalo, James Cook III ran 13 times for 53 yards, roughly 4.1 yards per carry. The Bills attempted just 22 rushes as a team, and the remaining nine carries went for 34 yards. When a team falls behind early, the ground game often shrinks, and that is what the numbers suggest here.
Receiving: Waddle Hits the Big Play, Shakir Stays Busy
Jaylen Waddle caught five passes for 84 yards and a touchdown, an average of 16.8 yards per catch. That is the profile of a deep threat who does not need many targets to change a game. Khalil Shakir was Buffalo’s most active receiver, catching seven passes for 58 yards, a more modest 8.3 yards per reception.
The gap between those averages tells a story. Miami’s passing game was built on selective, chunk plays, while Buffalo moved the ball in smaller bites that rarely turned into points.
Defense: Brooks Leads a Quiet Group
Linebacker Jordyn Brooks led all defenders with 12 tackles, six of them solo. Safety Jordan Poyer added eight tackles, and defensive tackle Zach Sieler recorded a sack. Buffalo took three sacks in total, and the Dolphins forced three Bills turnovers when you count the interception and two lost fumbles together. Those takeaways, more than any single hit or tackle, shaped the outcome.
Team Stats Comparison
Individual lines only tell part of the story, so here is how the two teams compared overall.
| Statistic | Bills | Dolphins |
|---|---|---|
| Total yards | 376 | 370 |
| Total plays | 65 | 53 |
| Yards per play | 5.8 | 7.0 |
| Passing yards | 289 | 173 |
| Rushing yards | 87 | 197 |
| Rushing attempts | 22 | 32 |
| First downs | 20 | 19 |
| Third-down conversions | 5 of 15 | 3 of 9 |
| Sacks allowed (yards) | 3 (17) | 0 (0) |
| Red zone (made-attempts) | 0-1 | 1-1 |
| Turnovers | 3 | 2 |
| Penalties (yards) | 6 (67) | 5 (35) |
| Time of possession | 31:23 | 28:37 |
The first thing that jumps out is how close the yardage was: 376 for Buffalo and 370 for Miami. A game that tight on paper should not end 30-13. The explanation sits in the efficiency columns. Miami averaged 7.0 yards on every play compared with 5.8 for Buffalo, and the Dolphins did it on twelve fewer snaps.
How the Game Unfolded Quarter by Quarter
Miami scored seven points in the first quarter and nine in the second, which gave the Dolphins a 16-0 lead at halftime. Neither team scored in the third quarter. Then the fourth quarter brought most of the late action: the Dolphins added 14 points, and Buffalo answered with 13 of its own.
That final push gave the scoreboard a slightly more respectable look for the Bills, but the game was effectively decided much earlier. Buffalo’s offense had the ball for more than 31 minutes and still went three quarters without a point. That kind of stall usually comes from turnovers, penalties, and drives that die near midfield, and Buffalo had all three in this game.
What the Numbers Really Tell Us
A few patterns explain the result better than the final score does.
The first is turnovers. Buffalo gave the ball away three times, compared with two for Miami, but the Bills’ mistakes came in worse moments and cost them momentum. Two lost fumbles are especially damaging because fumbles are often unforced and tend to swing field position immediately.
The second is rushing efficiency. Miami ran 32 times for 197 yards, a 6.2-yard average, while Buffalo managed only 4.0 yards per rush. When one team controls the line of scrimmage like that, play-calling opens up for everyone, including the quarterback and receivers.
The third is red zone opportunity. Buffalo made just one trip inside the 20 and came away empty. Miami also had only one trip but scored. One red zone drive for each team sounds like a small sample, and it is, yet it reflects how few sustained scoring drives the Bills strung together despite winning the possession battle.
Finally, penalties mattered a little. Buffalo was flagged six times for 67 yards, almost double the yardage Miami gave up. Those penalties rarely decide games on their own, but they do erase good plays and push offenses behind the chains.
Recent Bills vs Dolphins History
This result cut against a long trend. Buffalo had owned the series for most of the previous decade, and the previous two meetings fit that pattern. On September 18, 2025, the Bills beat the Dolphins 31-21. A year earlier, on September 12, 2024, Buffalo won 31-10. In that 2024 game James Cook scored three times, including a 17-yard catch from Allen, a one-yard run, and a 49-yard run, and defensive back Ja’Marcus Ingram added a 31-yard interception return for a touchdown.
Seen against that backdrop, the November 2025 result looks like an outlier rather than a new normal. Divisional games tend to be volatile, though. Familiar opponents know each other’s tendencies, and a team with a bad record can play well above it for 60 minutes.
How to Read an NFL Box Score Like a Pro
If you want to dig into any game on your own, start with yards per play rather than total yards. Total yards reward teams that run more snaps, while yards per play shows who was more efficient. Next, look at turnovers and red zone results, because those two categories explain a surprising share of final scores.
Then check third-down conversion rates and time of possession together. A team can hold the ball for 31 minutes and still lose if it does not convert those minutes into points, as Buffalo showed here. For another example of how to read an NFL box score from top to bottom, see our Los Angeles Rams vs Baltimore Ravens match player stats breakdown. If you follow other teams in Miami too, our Miami Heat vs Lakers player stats article covers a very different sport with the same stat-first approach.
Keep in mind that league statisticians sometimes revise numbers after a game, so tiny differences can appear between sites. When accuracy matters, compare two sources.
Conclusion
The Buffalo Bills vs Miami Dolphins match player stats from November 9, 2025, show a game that was closer on paper than on the scoreboard. Buffalo matched Miami in total yards and held the ball longer. Miami won because it was far more efficient, ran the ball for 197 yards behind Achane’s 174, and avoided the costly mistakes that sank Buffalo’s early drives.
The takeaway is simple: yards are not points. Allen’s 306 passing yards looked impressive, but turnovers and a lack of red zone production kept them from mattering. If you are tracking this rivalry going forward, watch the turnover margin and the rushing numbers first. They told the story here, and they usually tell it in this series.
FAQs
Who won the Buffalo Bills vs Miami Dolphins game on November 9, 2025?
The Miami Dolphins won 30-13 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.
Who was the leading rusher in the Bills vs Dolphins game?
De’Von Achane of the Dolphins led all rushers with 174 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries. Buffalo’s James Cook III ran for 53 yards on 13 carries.
How many passing yards did Josh Allen have?
Josh Allen completed 28 of 40 passes for 306 yards and threw one interception. Buffalo’s net passing total was 289 yards after three sacks.
How did Tua Tagovailoa perform in the game?
Tua Tagovailoa completed 15 of 21 passes for 173 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions. He was not sacked.
Who were the top receivers for each team?
Jaylen Waddle led Miami with five catches for 84 yards and a touchdown. Khalil Shakir led Buffalo with seven catches for 58 yards.
Where was the Bills vs Dolphins game played?
It was played at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, in front of 66,030 fans.
Where can I find official NFL player stats for a game?
The NFL’s official Game Center, ESPN box scores, and Pro Football Reference all publish detailed player and team stats, usually within minutes of the final whistle.
