Buffalo @ Miami Preview

Buffalo @ Miami   

• Where: Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Fla. 
• When: Sunday, Sept. 19 
• Time:  1:00 EDT 
• Weather: 88 degrees, Humidity: 66% :40 percent chance of rain :7 MPH wind 
• Point Spread: Buffalo -3.5 
• O/U 
• TV: FOX 

Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott is 7-1 vs. Miami. Brian Flores is 0-4 against the Bills having being swept two years in a row and I am sure he would love to end Buffalo’s now 5 game win streak against our Dolphins, in those 5 games the Bills have put up 197 points vs Miami, scoring an average of 39.4 points per game! Last year in a game that meant everything and the entire season was on the line Miami went into Buffalo and got manhandled! The game was not even close as the Bills just rained down on Miami and embarrassed them winning 56-26 even their backups kept scoring on our starters! I am sure the players on the team last year remembers that butt whooping! 

What really upset me about that game more than the Dolphins lack of showing up, is that the Bills kept laying it on Miami (running up the score). Miami now has a chance to do severe damage to the Bills and with a win against Buffalo the Bills will start of the season 0-2 (after losing their home opener vs the Steelers) for Miami they will have won two division games and have the advantage in the AFC East early on and will be guaranteed a split against two of our top Division rivals. 

When you listen to the players and coaches talking, they use the same old blah blah blah story that it was last year and both teams have new players and it is like they forgot about last year, but I am telling you I am still upset about that loss I was so upset at that loss that I did not even do the game review.

Miami’s matchup: on Offense 

The story on offense will always start and end with QB Tua Tagovailoa and despite the negativity and haters out there Tua is 8-3 as Miami’s starter and is no longer playing in Ryan Fitzpatrick’s tailor-made offense but now has an offense built for Tua. Last year up in Buffalo Tua still put up 361 passing yards without the weapons he possesses this year. Buffalo has a good defense but it is not New England’s defense and so I expect Miami’s offense to score more than 17 points this week. It is just too early to put out stats so I will forgo the averages util later. 

Miami’s matchup: on Defense 

Once again up in New England Miami’s defense did their job, they are known as a bend but don’t break defense and that is exactly what they did and some of it was because our offense did not maintain possession long enough to give our defense rest in that game. But Miami did what they do best and the numbers don’t lie! Miami is on a 23-game streak of takeaway’s and that is what saved the day last week up in New England, that ball hawking play needs to continue this week to pull off the upset. 

The Strategy:  

This Dolphins team is built so that every unit plays complementary football, that is the Offense, Defense and Special Teams needs to do their job to win games. It is never on one person even though the QB will be in the spot light or hot seat depending on the outcome. 

Miami will need all their units to play up to their level and they need to do the very thing I have ALWAYS focused on and as simple as it sounds it has been a problem for Miami. Stopping the run and running the ball effectively! If they can do that, they will put themselves in position to win the game! 

My Take: 

It seems like it is always a case for a team to be considered great they had to get through another team that is already there. I remember back in the day when I was a Chicago Bulls fan and the Detroit Pistons were just hammering the Bulls who had to continue improve their game until they got to the point where they could finally beat Detroit, and the rest is history. 

The Dolphins find themselves in that situation this week with the Buffalo Bills and last years ending game leaves many of us wondering when will Miami beat the Bills who now have a 5-game winning streak, meaning Miami have not beaten Buffalo in over two years! 

I hope that Miami can take advantage of this opportunity to get a good lead over our AFC East division rivals. 

If Miami can stop the Bills from scoring 21 points, they can win this game but if Buffalo can do what they have averaged over the past few years scoring just under 40 points a game, then it will go to a 6-game winning streak. 

The pressure is on BOTH teams this early in the season. 

Prediction 

TDS Pick: Miami 24, Buffalo 20