The Miami Dolphins head up north to take on the Buffalo Bills in Thursday Night Football, in a matchup of two AFC East teams both struggling to right their respective ships. The task is even harder for the Bills, as they will be playing without one of their best players as running back Fred Jackson is sidelined with a concussion.
And while it isn’t a marquise primetime pairing, it is a tough division rivalry with two teams both playing for pride.
A few weeks ago, everyone in the AFC East was within one game of each other, but things have changed quite a bit in the last three weeks. The Dolphins have dropped two games in a row – a 23-20 squeaker to Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts and last week, they were pounded 37-3 by the Tennessee Titans.
“Obviously we had a really tough game, really tough week for us,” Dolphins rookie quarterback Ryan Tannehill said. “We have to bounce back quickly.”
“We’re excited to get back on the field Thursday and show what we can really play like.”
Tannehill has had a rough start to his NFL career, although he has shown flashes of brilliance. He is currently 29th in the league in quarterback efficiency, completing 58.9 percent of his passes with 5 TDs and 9 INTs. A lot of the damage occurred in two terrible starts for him – Week 1 against Houston and last week against the Titans, in which he threw 0 TDs and 6 INTs. He has been pretty solid the rest of the year.
In fact, although the Dolphins are 4-5, they are in second place in the division and two of their losses were in overtime. They have been competitive in most of their games this season, despite the stats. They are 27th in total offense and 25th in points scored, averaging 19.2 points per game. Their defense is 28th against the pass. The one bright spot on the team has been their rushing defense, as they are fifth against the run, giving up only 94.2 yards per game.
The Bills come into the game even colder, losing three in a row, and five of the last six. Their defense was setting records for ineptitude earlier in the season in huge losses to San Francisco and New England in back-to-back weeks, by a combined score of 97-31.
Buffalo is last against the run, giving up over 163 yards per game, and 21st against the pass. Reggie Bush has to be licking his lips as he hopes to get his season back on track against the Bills porous rushing defense. Bush ran for 369 yards in the first four weeks of the season, but has only racked up 186 yards in the last five game. A strong running game by Bush will take a lot of the pressure off Tannehill, as Bush looks to recover from only 4 rushing attempts last week after an early fumble.
“I’ve got to do a better job protecting the ball,” Bush said. “I’ve been in this league long enough to where I know protecting the ball is the most important thing as a running back.”
On the offensive side of the ball, the Bills 6th ranked rushing attack will look to carry the load. Despite the loss of Jackson, C.J. Spiller has been strong in Jackson’s absence earlier this season. Jackson has been plagued by injuries this season, and Spiller has been the beneficiary as he is currently leading the Bills with 632 yards rushing, averaging a whopping 7.3 yards per carry, tops in the league, even exceeding Robert Griffin III’s amazing 6.5 yards per carry. While the Bills will miss Jackson, Spiller is definitely up to the task of carrying the offense.
“As an offense, we’re definitely going to miss him because he brings so much to our team,” said Spiller. “But this is familiar territory for me.”
The Bills will need to establish the run and need quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick to play mistake-free football. Fitzpatrick has been having a fairly solid year (62.5 percent complete for 2,011 yards with 17 TDs and 10 INTs), but division games have been a problem. In their three division matchups this season, he has thrown 8 of his 10 INTs. He will be hoping for a strong performance against that 28th ranked passing defense.
This figures to be a close game, and will ultimately be decided by whomever makes the fewest mistakes. The matchup to watch is strength on strength as the Bills running game tries to pound away at the tough Dolphins running defense. Buffalo is playing at home and in front of a sellout primetime crowd, and the emotional boost should be enough to push them to the victory.
