Game Preview: Bills-Dolphins round three

The Bills will take on the Dolphins on Sunday at 1pm EST in the wild-card round

The Bills secured the two-seed with their Week 18 win over the Patriots and the Dolphins secured the seven-seed with their Week 18, last-second win over the Jets, as well as the Patriots loss.

The whole season has been leading to these next couple weeks and they’re finally here for the Bills. This will the first game in the past three years that the Bills will play on Sunday and not Saturday in wild card weekend. I’m sure most of us are happy with that… I know I’m very excited.

Tua Tagovailoa is ruled out for this game and the Dolphins are preparing to start rookie QB Skylar Thompson. The line on the game immediately jumped from Bills -9 to -12.5 with the news of Tagovailoa being ruled out, and now it is up to -13.5. While this is a huge line, it is warranted. Last week, we saw Thompson put up nine points against the Jets.

They will also be without their best tackle Terron Armstead as he’s dealing with several injuries. Bradley Chubb has been limited in practice. Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill are expected to play while dealing with injuries.

The last two games the Bills have played against the Dolphins have been decided by a total of five points. The Bills lost by two in Miami and then beat them in Buffalo thanks to a last-second field goal from Tyler Bass.

Similar to last season when the Bills met the Patriots in the wild-card round, this game will decide the season split between the two teams and the loser will be sent home.

The Bills should be prepared to stop a lot of what the Dolphins do on offense given that they’ve played twice already and they’ll be starting a seventh-round rookie in Thompson. Hill and Waddle, both graded as top-ten WRs in the NFL by Pro Football Focus, will be the biggest priority for Sean McDermott and Leslie Frazier to slow down.

The Dolphins offense will be without RB Raheem Mostert due to a broken thumb. In the last matchup between these teams, Mostert shredded the Bills, averaging eight yards per carry while rushing for 136 yards on 17 attempts.

As for the Bills offense, “playoff Josh” is here. In his two playoff games last year, Josh Allen had an average passer rating of 149.0 and combined to throw for 637 yards and 9 touchdowns. It was a magical postseason from him, and he was 13 seconds away from getting to host a championship game in Orchard Park with a chance for the Super Bowl.

You can bet that all the Bills players and staff are thinking about that game still, and how bad they want the chance at revenge and how bad they want to finally get to a Super Bowl this year. It starts with beating the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. The Bills come into this meeting on a seven-game win streak, and they will need to make it to 11 straight to hoist the Lombardi Trophy this year.