A play at the end of the first half of the Bills’ 31–21 win over the Dolphins caught the attention of Miami coach Mike McDaniel, and has been brought to the attention of the NFL.
With the game tied at 14 and two seconds left in the first half, Bills quarterback Josh Allen and the team’s offense lined up to kneel the ball, as teams often do to run out the game clock. But Allen appeared to fumble the ball then took a knee as he simultaneously recovered the ball. While he took the knee, the official blew the whistle. Allen then got up, tossed the ball to an official and jogged off to the locker room as Dolphins cornerback Jack Jones attempted to pursue the Bills signal-caller and the ball. The NFL’s official scorebook for the game lists the play as an Allen fumble and recovery at the Bills’ 28-yard line.
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is it just me or was this not kneeled down??
this is a live ball Josh Allen tossed to the ref
watch it again pic.twitter.com/L0Zwxyk9i6
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) September 19, 2025
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said he contacted the league about the play.
“So this was a great exercise in my mental discipline. I saw it. I knew what happened,” McDaniel said. “And I also saw the whistle blow. And I saw them run in. And so then I ran in to prepare for the second half knowing that he just fumbled—or I thought they did at least. So we’ll be in talks with the league. Haven’t got any feedback yet.
“But live speed, it appeared that it was a fumble with the assumption that it was a clean center-quarterback exchange. But we’ll see how the league rules it.”
According to NFL rules, an official shall declare the ball dead when, among other instances, a quarterback immediately drops to his knee, or simulates the act of dropping to one knee, behind or beyond the line of scrimmage or when a runner declares himself down by falling to the ground, or kneeling, and clearly making no effort to advance the ball forward.
It would seem that Allen did one or both of those things and the official then declared the ball dead by blowing the whistle. But it will be interesting to see what the league has to say.
“And for me, I really work at not expending emotional energy on past things that I can’t fix,” McDaniel continued. “Unless I’m communicating, I’ll get mad on game day if I think whatever I’m getting mad at will have an effect on stuff moving forward. Otherwise, I don’t think it’s appropriate for everyone to wait around while I have an adult temper tantrum.
“I ran inside and worked on the plays coming out of the half.”
The Dolphins dropped to 0–3 with the loss to Buffalo, which improved to 3–0.