MIAMI GARDENS — Miami Dolphins cornerback Rasul Douglas was a part of the Buffalo Bills’ last two AFC East championships.
Why has Buffalo won the division five straight times?
“They do things right away,” Douglas said, days before a “Thursday Night Football” clash in Orchard Park, N.Y. “They got a system of how they run things, how they do things, and everybody just follows it.”
This is the Buffalo Bills’ Era and the Dolphins, Patriots and Jets are just living in it.
“I think it starts with the team plays as a team, their franchise quarterback continues to develop and get better and they fight through adversity,” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said of Buffalo. “The team itself – hats off to coach (Sean) McDermott – because he hasn’t changed in the process.”
Miami is nearly a two-touchdown underdog at the Bills on Thursday (8:15 p.m., Amazon Prime) and with good reason.
The Dolphins are 0-2. Their offense and defense has struggled and their coach is under such fire there’s already talk about if or when he’ll be fired.
The Bills are 2-0. Their quarterback, Josh Allen, is reigning league Most Valuable Player. They’ve been to two AFC championship games in the last five years.
Dolphins massive underdogs at Bills on “Thursday Night Football”
According to DraftKings, 98 percent of moneyline bets have been on the Bills to defeat the Dolphins. Ninety. Eight. Percent.
“Prime time,” Dolphins receiver Jaylen Waddle said. “If you’re not excited about playing on prime time, you really shouldn’t be in this sport.”
No NFL team has been mocked, ridiculed or doubted this offseason and in Weeks 1 and 2 more than the Dolphins. It is imperative for McDaniel and the Dolphins not to be embarrassed before the entire nation and NFL world.
“At the end of the day, it may look bad for (McDaniel), but it’s really on us,” Dolphins edge rusher Chop Robinson said this week.
It’s almost impossible to think of a worse place for Miami to play after an 0-2 start than Western New York.
Consider these troubling stats:
*The Bills have won the last six meetings and 13 of 14.
*The Bills have won the last nine meetings in Buffalo.
*Josh Allen is 12-2 against the Dolphins.
Tua Tagovailoa’s record at Buffalo is troubling
Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa played well in a three-point loss at Buffalo last season. But he’s 1-8 against Buffalo, and 0-5 on the road.
“I think the discipline of that defense is what makes them really good,” Tagovailoa said of the Bills.
Tagovailoa has not played his best football in the first two weeks.
Yet he is not afraid to shower rival Josh Allen with deserved praise.
“Dude, he’s top tier,” Tua said. “If it’s not with his arm, it’s with his legs. That dude can do literally anything he wants. Definitely different skill set for me. I can’t do half of what he does when it comes to running the ball and any of that, and then with how he can just chuck a ball down the field with how far and the arm strength that he has, he’s supreme.”
McDaniel, the Dolphins coach, was reminiscing this week about some classic Dolphins-Bills memories. “Yeah, there was a middle finger,” McDaniel recalled of Bryan Cox’s actions in 1993. “I was like, ‘Woah, that’s intense.’”
In a perfect world, Dolphins-Bills would still be a classic AFC rivalry.
But it’s too lopsided at the moment. The Bills are rolling and the Dolphins are reeling and there’s really only one way to change these storylines.
“Do our jobs and get a win,” Waddle said.
Joe Schad is a journalist covering the Miami Dolphins and the NFL at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jschad@pbpost.com and follow him on Instagram and on X @schadjoe.
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This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Miami Dolphins are enormous underdogs vs Buffalo Bills, must ‘do our jobs and get a win’
Reporting by Joe Schad, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
