ORCHARD PARK - The pall inside the Buffalo Bills locker room was unmistakable. They had just pummeled the high-flying Miami Dolphins 48-20 for one of the most impressive victories in the Sean McDermott coaching era, yet everything was essentially overshadowed by the awful news that cornerback Tre’Davious White’s season is over.

White suffered an Achilles’ injury in the third quarter on a play where the Buffalo defense came up with a fourth-down stop. It was a devastating sight for the coaches, the players, the entire organization, really, to see White crying on the field, knowing exactly what had happened and what it meant.

“Sometimes you just wonder why?” McDermott said, clearly emotional as he addressed the situation after the game. “He worked so hard to get back. … He personifies what it means to be a Buffalo Bill. To see him on the field the way he was hurting, that's hard, that's hard to watch."

It’s a brutal game, and no player is immune to injury, but for White, it really is a cruel blow given that he missed a full calendar year between Thanksgiving 2021 and 2022 with a blown-out right knee and had worked so hard to resume his career.

There were struggles last year to get back to full speed, but he was there at the start of this season and now, all that work goes down the tubes and he’ll have to start all over again with an entirely different and terrible injury to overcome.

“It breaks my heart, it really does,” Josh Allen said. "Not sure the extent of it but you never want to see your teammates on the floor pounding their fists. It just sucks. He’s worked his ass off to get back to playing the way we know Tre can play football and it truly breaks my heart.”

I’ll have more on the White injury in Monday morning’s Bills Blast newsletter. If you are a subscriber, you can click the link below to receive it.

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As for the game, the Bills could not have played much better, so here’s how I graded the performance.

PASS OFFENSE: A+

This was Allen at his finest, just a play-making machine that Miami – as usual – had no answers for. There is no player the Dolphins would love to see retire more than Allen because he has tortured them from the moment he entered the league.

Allen has now thrown multiple TD passes in 12 straight games against the Dolphins (including playoffs), extending the longest streak by a QB against a single opponent in NFL history. It was also the 10th time Allen has led the Bills to at least 40 points in a game.

Allen rose up to the challenge in a game where he knew he needed to score often and his response was five total touchdowns – four passing and one rushing. He finished 21 of 25 for 320 yards and a perfect 158.3 QB rating, a first in his career.

Stefon Diggs was his main man as the Bills took advantage of a great matchup on the outside against Dolphins CB Kader Kohou. Diggs toasted him all afternoon as he caught six passes for 120 yards and career-high-tying three TDs.

Whenever it needed to make a play, regardless of down and distance, the Bills’ passing game came through as eight different players caught passes. Gabe Davis had the first TD of the game on a beautiful call by Ken Dorsey that ended up in an 18-yard pitch and catch in the end zone.

RUN OFFENSE: B-

The Bills had some success early as they were getting yardage up the middle and Latavius Murray ripped off a 29-yard run in the first quarter. But otherwise, the Dolphins did a good job as they bottled up James Cook and didn’t allow Allen to make big plays with his legs, with the exception of his 11-yard QB keeper for a fourth-quarter TD.

Cook finished with just 29 yards on 12 carries, though he did have a 48-yard catch a run when Allen escaped trouble and Cook knew his scramble rules and found open space so that Allen could throw it to him.

PASS DEFENSE: A

It’s not too often that I’m going to hand out this grade when the opposing QB completes 25 of 35 for 282 yards, but so be it. Tua Tagovailoa came in as the most dangerous passer in the league because of all the amazing weapons he has around him, and he looked unstoppable on the first two possessions of the game as he directed easy TD drives.

From then on, the Bills’ defense came up with huge stops as Miami had five possessions stopped by turnovers (a fumble and an interception), three on downs and three others ended in punts. Against this offense, that was impressive.

Micah Hyde had the pick late in the third quarter that pretty much put the game away because the offense scored shortly thereafter to make it 48-20. And the pass rush was great as it sacked Tagovailoa four times after he had been sacked just once on 105 dropbacks in the first three games. Greg Rousseau had two (plus a deflected pass) and Ed Oliver and DaQuan Jones had one each.

Tyreek Hill (3 catches, 58 yards) and Jaylen Waddle (4-46) were hardly noticeable which is quite a statement for the secondary. Give credit to McDermott, now also the defensive coordinator, for a tremendous game plan which neutered most of Miami’s legendary speed.

RUN DEFENSE: B-

Rookie speedster De’Von Achane broke a 55-yard run in the fourth quarter, but that was the only explosive rushing play the Dolphins had which is quite a thing one week after they ran for 350 yards and five TDs against the Broncos.

Achane topped 100 yards because of that big play, but the Bills did an outstanding job on Raheem Mostert as he managed a paltry nine yards on seven carries. The Dolphins were certainly hurt by a weakened offensive line as center Connor Williams was inactive and then LT Terron Armstead suffered a knee injury in the second quarter and that had an impact up front.

Matt Milano led the defense with 10 tackles and a forced fumble on Mostert which was recovered by Terrel Bernard.

SPECIAL TEAMS: B+

Not a lot was happening in the kicking game outside of Tyler Bass continuing his perfect season with a pair of field goals, one a 53-yarder later in the first half. He also had five kickoff touchbacks and it wasn’t more only because the Bills tried a few short kickoffs in the hope that they could tackle return man Braxton Berrios inside the 25. He ended up averaging 22.8 per return.

Punter Sam Martin punted twice for a net average of 46.5 with one downed inside the 20. In the return game, Khalil Shakir had two kickoff returns for a 21.5 average and there were no punt returns.

COACHING: A

When you hold a team coming off a 70-point, 726-yard game to 20 points and 393 yards, that’s a pretty good day. And again, ordinarily those numbers wouldn’t look great, but against this Miami offense, they are.

McDermott had excellent coverage plans that limited Miami’s big-play ability as the longest pass play was actually a 23-yarder from FB Alec Ingold. Hill’s biggest play was 20, Waddle’s was 17. It’s not often that will happen to those guys.

On offense, Dorsey had a great game plan as he dialed up excellent play calls throughout the day and Allen executed flawlessly. It’s hard to play or coach better than the Bills did Sunday.

Sal Maiorana can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana and on Threads @salmaiorana1. To subscribe to Sal's newsletter, Bills Blast, which will come out every Friday during training camp, please follow this link: https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Bills report card: Injury overshadows nearly perfect game vs. Dolphins