No points, lots of excitement.

The Bills were angry that receiver Andre Reed was ejected for pushing an official with 1:47 left after being tackled at the Miami 1-yard line.

"I was just getting up. I don't know an official was right there," Reed said. "He said I pushed him, and he threw me out of the game."

"That play killed us," coach Wade Phillips said. "We not only don't get a touchdown, we lost Andre."

Buffalo settled for a field goal that made the score 24-17, which forced it to try unsuccessfully for a tying touchdown in the final minute.

The breaks starting going against the Bills on the first play. Eric Moulds beat Terrell Buckley on a 65-yard bomb, but fumbled when he was hit by Buckley, and Miami recovered.

"It started off well," Dolphins linebacker Zach Thomas said. "That first play set the tone. That's great heart, to fight back after getting beat like that."

Sometimes the ball bounced the Bills' way. They recovered Mare's onside kick and scored three plays later for a 7-6 lead, but Miami coach Jimmy Johnson defended the strategy.

"We've been successful with the onside kick, and they didn't have the alignment to stop it," Johnson said. "Going against a 25-mph wind, we figured they would get good field position anyway."

Marino found a new target in Tim Ruddy, the Dolphins' 300-pound center. He caught a deflected pass and ran several yards to complete an 8-yard gain.

"I just tried not to get hurt," Ruddy said. "Three Bills were there, but they were laughing too hard, so I got through them."

The gain helped Miami drive to a tie-breaking field goal early in the fourth quarter. The Bills caught one break down the stretch, recovering an onside kick, but they couldn't catch the Dolphins.