Ronnie Brown breaks a tackle during the Dolphins win against the Bills in Toronto.
TORONTO (AP)—Chad Pennington and the Miami Dolphins took advantage of an indifferent Bills “home” crowd, an inept Buffalo offense and the cozy indoors of the Rogers Centre to stay firmly in playoff contention.
Pennington completed 23 passes, including his final 11 attempts, and also hit Anthony Fasano for a 20-yard touchdown as the Dolphins (8-5) won for the sixth time in seven games, 16-3 on Sunday. The Dolphins’ defense did the rest, allowing only 163 yards to a Bills team playing its first of five annual regular-season games in its adopted home-away-from-home of Toronto.
The Bills (6-7) lost for the sixth time in seven games and were all but mathematically knocked out of playoff contention—a considerable letdown for a team that opened the season 4-0.
Pennington finished with 181 yards, and became the third Dolphins player to reach 3,000 yards passing in a season and first since Jay Fiedler in 2001. Dan Carpenter provided the rest of the scoring, hitting three field goals, including a 50-yarder, as the Dolphins continue their remarkable rebound from last year’s1-15 finish.
Rian Lindell provided the Bills’ only score, a 40-yard field goal late in the first quarter. Buffalo’s offense now nearly nine consecutive quarters without a touchdown.
J.P. Losman, starting in place of injured Trent Edwards (groin), was wildly inconsistent, finishing 13-of-27 for 123 yards and a costly interception that ended Buffalo’s best scoring drive. It happened late in the third quarter when, facing first-and-goal from the 3, Losman underthrew a fade to Lee Evans , and the pass was intercepted by Will Allen.
The Dolphins had a large contingent of fans in attendance, and might have won some new ones over with the louder cheers going up when Miami scored or produced a defensive stop.
And at the rate Buffalo’s offense is stalling, it’s a surprise it wasn’t stopped at the border.
The Bills might be benefiting from getting nearly $10 million a game— nearly double what they bring in at Orchard Park—for the eight-game series that runs through 2012. But they lost a decided home-field advantage against a warm-weather team and heated division rival.
It didn’t help that the game was played in a climate-controlled 68-degree environment while the temperature outside was 15 and feeling like zero, with a bitter wind blowing off Lake Ontario.
Based on the crowd reaction, the game could’ve been played in Timbuktu rather than Toronto, because this was as foreign a “home” crowd as the Bills have ever played in front of. The setting was decidedly not blue-collar Buffalo, with Blue Jays and CFL Argonauts banners hanging from the rafters and nearly as many orange and aqua Dan Marino, Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams jerseys among the 52,000 fans.
Brown led the Dolphins with 70 yards rushing. Williams added 40 yards in his first return to Toronto since he spent the 2006 season with the Argonauts.
Losman led the Bills with 53 yards rushing, while Marshawn Lynch was limited to 31 yards on 13 carries.
