Buffalo Rumblings
The Bills can all but sew up the division with a win on Sunday
The Buffalo Bills have a chance to increase their already-dominant hold on the AFC East this weekend with a win over the Miami Dolphins. If they beat Miami, Buffalo will have a five-game lead over the Dolphins with the season-sweep to boot. If they lose, they’re still in good shape, but it leaves the door ajar just enough for Miami to have hope.
How can the Bills keep that from happening? The best way would be to follow the formula they’ve followed all year: Play turnover-free football, run the ball well, and take the easy money on passing plays until the chunk plays open up late in the game. They can also continue to keep opponents out of the end zone when they reach the red zone.
Here are the five Bills we’re watching this week as they take on the Dolphins for the second time this season.
It’s hard to think about a Bills-Dolphins game without noting Allen as a huge part of the puzzle. Ever since his rookie season, Allen’s just dominated Miami. The Bills are 12-2 against the Dolphins with Allen at quarterback, and he’s thrown 34 touchdown passes against just seven interceptions in those games.
It’s not quite Tom Brady against Buffalo numbers (Brady threw 72 touchdowns and just 25 interceptions in 36 career games against the Bills), but it’s close. Perhaps if the Bills go 21-1 against the Dolphins over the next decade, we can make that comparison in earnest. For now, we’ll settle for Allen continuing to play as well as he has so far this season on Sunday.
Even with the acquisition of stud veteran wide receiver Amari Cooper, it’s been Shakir and rookie Keon Coleman doing most of the heavy lifting over the last two weeks. Shakir was superb last week, catching 9-of-10 targets for 107 yards in the 31-10 win. He’s been Allen’s go-to guy in sticky situations, similar to what Cole Beasley was for Allen early in No. 17’s career.
Shakir is much more explosive after the catch, however, and he also has the quickness to run some deep-over routes and deep-crossing patterns off of play-action that can really decimate a defense’s communication. Miami has some good corners, but if it’s Kendall Fuller on Shakir, that’s a matchup I take if I’m Buffalo all day long.
The Bills need to pressure quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. They need to pressure him up the middle so that he can’t step into his throws and he stays uncomfortable in the pocket. Oliver hasn’t been great this year — none of the Bills’ defensive tackles have been — when it comes to pass-rush wins. Last week was a good showing, but the Seattle Seahawks are playing multiple reserve offensive linemen.
The Dolphins’ line is pretty strong all around, so it might take some blitz packages to create extra...
