Dolphins Week 15 Opponent Preview: Buffalo Bills

On Saturday night, the Dolphins look to sweep the Buffalo Bills and cut Buffalo’s stranglehold on the AFC East to only one game with three weeks to go in the season. It will be a harsh-weather environment as Buffalo is expected to get up to nine inches in snow on Saturday.

Here is what you need to know about the 10-3 Buffalo Bills — and the impending inclement weather:

The Bills will be perfectly in their element in the frozen tundra. The Dolphins? Not so much.

The Buffalo Bills, situated in the very northeast corner of the United States are famous for their snowy late-season home games.

The Miami Dolphins, tucked snugly in the sunny southeast corner of the U.S., are not.

The National Weather Service predicts Buffalo, NY could see anywhere from 1 foot to 3 feet of snow on Saturday along with a wind chill in the 20’s and possible wind gusts of 35 miles per hour, due to the lake effect in Buffalo.

To put it bluntly, it will be miserable for a Dolphins team from Miami.

Just last week in Los Angeles, the Dolphins needed heaters on the sidelines when it was 55 degrees outside. The game was played indoors.

In past cold games, Tua Tagovailoa’s statistics are suboptimal, including the game in Buffalo in 2020, where Tua threw three interceptions in a 26-56 loss.

The Dolphins and coach Mike McDaniel are downplaying the effect the weather may have on their performance, but history shows there is some reason for concern as they travel up to the northeast for an outdoors December game.

The Bills seem to be trending upwards at the right time

Before the season started, the Buffalo Bills were the AFC-favorites, and even super bowl favorites, for a lot of folks. However, after a bumpy start to the season, people started believing the Dolphins were the favorites to win the AFC East.

Fast forward to today and the script has flipped once again.

The Bills are looking like a well-oiled machine offensively and as of late, their defensive prowess is starting to show.

The Dolphins are suddenly trending in the wrong direction after dropping two straight road games in which the once-juggernaut offense has fallen flat. Miami was flat-out dominated in Santa Clara as the 49ers handed them a 33-17 loss just one week before being thoroughly outplayed by the 6-6 Los Angeles Chargers.

If these trends continue, MVP-candidate Josh Allen and the suddenly ferocious Buffalo defense may hand the Dolphins their third straight loss and run away with the division on Saturday night.

The Bills are absolutely beatable, as demonstrated by the Dolphins back in September

Sure, the game was played in Miami and it was 90+ degrees with multiple players becoming ill late in the game, but the Dolphins pulled out all the stops to beat a heavy-favorited Bills team.

The Bills have won every single game since that loss to Miami, including a huge win over the Chiefs, with the exception of one game. The Minnesota Vikings defeated the Bills 33-30 back in November.

How did they do it? Offensively.

Kirk Cousins threw two interceptions, but the Vikings still put up 33 points and walked out with a win. There is no reason Tua can’t put up 33 points and be even more efficient with the football than Cousins was. Justin Jefferson snagged 10 catches for 193 yards and a touchdown. That is a textbook Tyreek Hill stat line.

If the Dolphins pass rush can get home just a few times and force Josh Allen to make some mistakes, just like the Vikings did, it is entirely possible the Dolphins cans squeak out a win. Josh Allen is amazing, but he is not perfect. He puts in so much effort week after week, that it sometimes is too much effort.

The bottom line

It won’t take a miracle for the Dolphins to escape

Antarctica

Buffalo with a win, but Miami must be on their A-game for sixty straight minutes on Saturday night.

The Bills are absolutely steamrolling right now and the weather this weekend is playing exactly into the palm of their hand. A tropical weather team like the Miami Dolphins forced into a windy, freezing snow storm? That’s very good news for the Bills.

But don’t count out these Miami Dolphins. They’ve beaten this Buffalo squad before and they could very well do it again — inching themselves one step closer to taking back the division lead.

Kickoff is set for 8:15 ET tonight in a miserably frigid Buffalo outdoor stadium. Bills open up as a whopping 7-point home favorite.