MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (WIVB) — It’s been a tough start to the season for second-year Bills running back Zack Moss.

He was dealing with a hamstring injury during training camp and missed the first preseason game. Then he was inactive in last week’s season opener against Pittsburgh. And what comes next happened off the field as Moss said he lost his Aunt and attended her funeral on Saturday.

The next day he had to go out and play a game against the Dolphins. It started out with good news as he returned to the lineup and was active against Miami. But he fumbled in the first quarter and the Dolphins recovered. It could have been easy to let it spiral but Moss bounced back in a monster way. Moss scored the Bills last two touchdowns to make it a blowout 35-0 win in South Florida with a seven-yard touchdown run less than two minutes into the fourth quarter.

“I just wanted to come out here and just play the game, had a rough start to it but just being able to go back out there and finish the right way, you know coaches allowing me to go out and do that is big,” Moss said after the game on Sunday.

“I thought it showed a tremendous amount of character and focus and his teammates did a great job of supporting Zack as he went down there. I mean that’s not easy to do to go down there early ahead of the team and take care of business like he had to take care of on the personal side of things and then shift gears and get focused to play in an NFL football game in the heat so I thought he really did a phenomenal job,” Bills head coach Sean McDermott said on Monday.

Moss finished with eight carries for 26 yards and a seven-yard and one-yard touchdown runs. And that confidence Sean McDermott had to keep putting Moss out there after the turnover went a long way.

“It was similar last year, my rookie year in San Francisco on a Monday night game we had a fumble on the exchange deep in the red zone coming out and I got benched that game so that was a big learning curve and for coach McDermott just continued to say that he trusts me every time I kind of saw him was big for me so I just knew I definitely needed to come back out and just do what I need to do,” Moss explained.

“It was fascinating to watch after he had the fumble he did a great job resetting and mentally that showed a lot of strength and toughness and got himself to where he was and have a really, really good game,” McDermott said.

To improve the running game was an emphasis at the end of last season going into this year and they were able show that rushing for 143 yards against the Dolphins. Devin Singletary really set the tone as he burst up the middle and took it 46-yards to the house on the Bills opening drive.

Up next, the Bills get ready to host Washington in week three.