Red-hot Buffalo should breeze past winless Dolphins

By Connor Byrne  |   Friday, November 09, 2007  |  Comments( 38 )

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The Buffalo Bills, after beginning the season 0-3, have won four of their last five games and are facing the 0-8 Dolphins in Miami this weekend. While the Bills have been good recently, albeit against some lesser competition, Miami, as evidenced by its record, has been a complete train wreck since the season began. Still, for reasons unknown, it's become a trend this week for certain NFL analysts to pick the Dolphins, only three-point underdogs, to win the game.

Not likely.

The fact is that Miami doesn't hold a single advantage over the Bills, who are playing with a great deal of confidence and have a chance, shockingly, to improve to 5-4 in time for their Week 10 showdown against 9-0 New England. Honestly, the only thing in Miami's favor is that it's coming off its bye week; in the end, that isn't going to matter.

Offensively, the Bills, after faring quite poorly for most of the first half of the season, have come on in the last five quarters. Since quarterback J.P. Losman took the reins from the injured Trent Edwards, Buffalo has scored 43 points in 75 minutes of football, including 33 points and 479 total yards in its 33-21 triumph over Cincinnati last Sunday.

Losman, in his short career, has been a bigger problem for the Dolphins than the tuna nets, having completed 37 of 63 passes for 507 yards, seven touchdowns and just a single interception in three starts against them. Further, Losman's favorite target, No. 1 wide receiver Lee Evans, has torched the Dolphins since he entered the league in 2004. In eight career games against Miami, Evans -- who has 19 catches for 401 yards and two touchdowns over the last three weeks -- has 19 grabs, including six touchdowns.

Judging solely from the statistics, one would think the Dolphins have a chance to contain the Losman-to-Evans connection. After all, Miami is sixth in the league against the pass; however, that's mainly because its run defense is horrible, ranked 31st in the pros.

The Dolphins are currently giving up 160.5 yards per game on the ground, which is fantastic news for Bills rookie running back Marshawn Lynch, whose 690 yards are good for fourth in the NFL. The hard-running, Roger Craig-like Lynch accrued his first 100-yard showing in last week's win over Cincinnati (29 carries, 153 yards), and it's probably fair to expect he'll surpass the century mark against the feckless Dolphins, who gave up 131 yards to the New York Giants' Brandon Jacobs in their last game.

As well as the Bills ought to fare on offense, their defense, which contained Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer last week while holding RBs Rudi Johnson and Kenny Watson to 28 yards rushing, might perform even better. Despite all the major injuries Buffalo's 'D' has dealt with this year (Paul Posluszny, et al.), the Angelo Crowell-led group has climbed to 19th against the run and 12th in points allowed, which is a credit to unheralded coordinator Perry Fewell and the young personnel he's coaching.

Miami's lifeblood offensively earlier in the year was stellar runner Ronnie Brown, but he suffered a season-ending knee tear a few weeks ago and has been replaced by Jesse Chatman, who was out of football in 2005 and '06. While the 223-pound Chatman is averaging an impressive 5.4 yards per carry, he hasn't accumulated more than 16 attempts in a game yet. Therefore, if the Dolphins' Cleo Lemon-quarterbacked offense isn't able to pass (they're 18th in the league), Chatman might not be someone the team can count on to carry the load. With that in mind, where is Miami's production supposed to come from? Odds are that Chatman won't make a real impact against the Bills (who are led up front by outstanding defensive tackle John McCargo), and Buffalo's cornerbacks -- Jabari Greer and Terrence McGee -- will more than likely stymie Miami's so-so receiving corps that consists of Derek Hagan, Ted Ginn Jr. and Marty Booker.

When this game is really broken down, it's obvious Buffalo is far better than Miami (including on special teams), and that will show on Sunday, when the Bills improve to 5-4 and the Dolphins plummet to 0-9 and inch closer to the first overall pick in next April's draft.

Prediction (season record: 8-0) - Bills 27, Dolphins 10.
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CommentsComments: 38  |  Sign Up  View all comments
No.1
Kegman		09:44 AM
11/09/2007
Bills O-line has to set the tone and get the running game going and control the clock; I think the Defense will get it done, and...
No.2
John		10:15 AM
11/09/2007
"bigger problem for the dolphins than tuna nets" - awesome! I agree with the article, the Bills should roll this weekend, but...
No.3
ddd		10:30 AM
11/09/2007
If I was a gambling man, I would stay clear of this game. Too many uncertainties and Zach Thomas has been cleared to play. The...
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