Saturday, December 8, 2007

Phins @ Bills

The Bills own the Miami Dolphins. Buffalo is 8-3 vs. Miami since the 2002 and since the beginning of 2004 the Bills are 6-1 against their rivals from South Florida. This begs the question, is the Bills Dolphins rivalry really a rivalry anymore? The Dolphins have been so bad lately it is hard to even take them seriously. With how bad the Bills have been since 2000 that is saying a lot. Any team who has lost 8 of 11 against the Bills since 2002 is not a good franchise. Regardless, Bills fans still hate Miami more than anything, especially those who lived through the 70s. The Bills were 0-20 against Miami during the decade. Fans still burn fish in the parking lots and the cops don't even care. Isn't that animal cruelty or something? Welcome to One Bills Drive where the laws hardly apply.

For the first time all season I am actually confident the Bills will win a football game. The Dolphins are still winless which has to make you nervous because they are so due but they are also just so bad. They are coming off an embarrassing home loss to the 3-9 Jets by the score of 40-13. The Dolphins are ranked 28th in points, 29th in total offense and 27th in passing yardage. The only average portion of their team is their running game, ranking 18th, but they are going to without their third string running back Jessie Chatman and down to fourth stringer Lorenzo Booker. Defensively, Miami allows 26.4 points per game ranking 30th in the league and allows a league worst 149.7 yards on the ground per game. Their once proud defense is getting really old really fast. Ironically though, the Bills offense is statistically worse than Miami's in every major statistical category (points 29th, yards 31st, pass yards 29th, rush yards 2oth). Despite this, they have 6 more wins. Wow Cam Cameron must be an awful coach. How do you have 6 less wins than a team that you are statistically better than in every offensive category? Ouch.

To make things worse for Miami, they may be without half their starters. Chatman is probably not playing already. Listed as questionable are Traylor, Porter, Holliday, Crowder, Booker as well as Chatman. These are probably the only guys on the team the average football fan has ever heard of besides Ginn Jr. who is hardly a difference maker at the 9th pick overall. At least it seems like they have a quarterback in Beck. He is completing only 54% of his passes and has yet to throw a touchdown with his 3 interceptions. Last week alone, in a home game against the Jets, Beck turned it over 5 times. 5 turnovers at home against the Jets? Nice draft pick. If it seems like things couldn't possibly get any worse for the Phins, they did this week. Mike Mularkey is calling the plays tomorrow. Should be interesting to say the least. Last time Mike Mularkey called plays I think he was calling half back passes on a 2 point conversion at the end of the game down by 2. I love it. This guy is brain dead. I don't know how he is employed in the NFL. It makes as much sense as Isiah Thomas being employed by the Knicks.

As for the Bills, Marshawn Lynch will probably be playing. This is the first time playing since the Bills first outing against Miami in which the Bills were awful and still somehow won. Lynch will have Freddy Jackson to relieve some of the load when needed. This will be a huge boost to a lethargic offense. Since Lynch left the lineup, the Bills have 0 rushing touchdowns and only 3 total as a team. They only have 13 offensive touchdowns on the season and 7 of them are accounted for by Lynch. Trent Edwards will start yet again and the Bills have only lost 1 time when he has started. Edwards completes a lot of passes (65%) but he needs to start finding the end zone. The Bills need to score touchdowns, especially next week when they go to Cleveland. Edwards was clutch last week on that final drive, but if Buffalo could have turned a couple of their first 4 field goals into touchdowns they may not have been in that spot. The blame doesn't go entirely to Edwards though if at all. Penalties and specifically number 84 have been killing the Bills in the red zone.

The Bills defense has done a good job keeping teams out of the end zone but they need to get better on third downs. They are allowing nearly 50% third down conversion percentage which is the worst in the league and probably the worst ever at least the worst I have ever seen. Tomorrow could cure some of the problems they have had because Miami has literally 0 talent and has even worse talent on the field tomorrow than they did 4 weeks ago if that is even possible.

The Bills will win tomorrow and cover the 7 points they are giving the Dolphins. Buffalo is better on both sides of the ball and finally they can out coach an opponent as well. Cam Cameron is awful and Dick Jauron does deserve some credit for this team being 6-6. The Bills will win 27-6. They will produce 3 offensive touchdowns for only the 2nd time all season.

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