Bills look to continue dominance over division rival in Week 9: What to know
ORCHARD PARK - Among the many things Sean McDermott will preach to the Buffalo Bills this week is to make sure they don’t take their foot off the accelerator.
The first half of the 2024 season could not have gone any better for the four-time defending AFC East champions. With a 6-2 record, they are so far ahead of everyone else in the NFL’s most underachieving and worst division, they need a high-powered telescope to see the Miami Dolphins, New York Jets and New England Patriots somewhere out there in the distance.
Just think that on the evening of Oct. 14, the Bills were playing in New York and if they had lost, they would have slipped to 3-3 and been tied with the Jets who would have been in first place based on the head-to-head tiebreaker. Meanwhile, the Dolphins were on a bye week at 2-3 and would have been just a half-game out.
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Well, the Bills won that night, and since then, they’ve tacked on two resounding victories over the Titans and Seahawks, while the Jets and Dolphins have imploded, both losing in Weeks 7 and 8 and at this rate, the Bills will have their fifth straight division title wrapped up around Thanksgiving.
And that, of course, is exactly what McDermott will warn his team about as it prepares this week to host the Dolphins. Things can change in a hurry in the NFL, and for all the good will the Bills have earned so far, things can sometimes turn on a dime for any number of reasons such as a spate of injuries, a run of unlucky plays, a colossal coaching error.
“There's definitely things that we have to improve on,” McDermott said after the 31-10 thrashing of the Seahawks Sunday.
Backup defensive tackle Austin Johnson, an eighth-year veteran who has been to the NFL postseason with both the Titans and Chargers, understands the grind and he’ll be happy to warn his teammates that the job is far from finished with nine regular-season games left.
“Have to be consistent, keep on going, win the division and get in the playoffs,” he said. “Keep on stacking (wins).”
For example, look at the Bills last season. They were middling along at 6-6 and the Dolphins were feeling pretty good about their chances to win the division. But then the Bills reeled off five straight victories including the division-settling game in Miami.
“Records are deceiving,” offensive guard David Edwards said. “To me, so many things can happen and change. A lot can change from right now to the end of the season. We try to focus on us and play our style of football.”
Buffalo Bills key to victory
Keep pounding the ball on the ground. The Bills have rushed for at least 150 yards in three of their last four games and when they do that, their offense really hums. James Cook had an outstanding performance against the Seahawks with 111 yards and two touchdowns, and he was helped by an offensive line that was road-grading Seahawks out of the way.
The Dolphins are a middling run defense as they rank 16th in the league with an average yield of 123.7 yards per game. They have already lost outstanding edge rusher Jaelen Phillips for the season, and in their somewhat stunning final play 28-27 loss to Arizona Sunday, star safety Jevon Holland, always a hammer against the run, left the game with a knee injury.
Dolphins key to victory
As always for Miami, their ability to beat the Bills will come down to whether Tua Tagovailoa is able to utilize his high-level targets, Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, DeVon Achane and Raheem Morris, and find explosive, game-changing plays. In his return from missing four games with a concussion, Tagovailoa completed 28 of 38 passes for 237 yards and the Dolphins enjoyed a season-best day on offense with 377 yards. That’s how much Tagovailoa means to his team.
It has been proven that the Dolphins have always struggled to take the long road on possessions against Buffalo’s defense because eventually, they stall and settle for field goals. They need a quick-strike game that ends in touchdowns because the Bills’ offense usually has its way against Miami’s defense.
Matchup to watch
In the first game, the speedy Achane was a major problem for the Bills both as a runner and a receiver, and he will need to be a dual threat in this one, too, if the Dolphins hope to pull the upset. Although the Bills dominated the Week 2 game, they had no answers for him in Miami as he rushed for 96 yards and caught seven passes for 69 yards and a touchdown.
The Bills have almost always done a nice job limiting the damage from Hill and Waddle, but Achane is a new dilemma for them. The second-year pro rushed for 97 yards and caught six passes for 50 yards against the Cardinals, and for the season, he ranks 22nd in the NFL in yards gained from scrimmage with 601.
Who wins? Bills 30, Dolphins 19
Since Josh Allen joined the Bills in 2018, he has dominated Miami like no other opponent, winning 12 of 14 games counting the postseason by the cumulative score of 460-269. He has saved some of his best performances for the Dolphins, and given the state of the two teams as they come together Sunday in Buffalo, where Allen has never lost to the AFC East rival, there’s no reason to believe anything will change in this one-sided divisional matchup unless the Dolphins tap into their desperation and rise to the occasion in trying to save their season from completely circling down the drain.
What time does the Bills vs Dolphins game start?
Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. at Highmark Stadium
Who is favored to win Bills vs Dolphins?
The Bills have opened as a 6.5-point favorite for the game. The money line is Bills minus-300 (bet $300 to win $100) and Dolphins plus-240 (bet $100 to win $240). The over-under is 48.5.
How to watch Buffalo Bills vs Dolphins game on TV, streaming
∎ Cable/Network TV: CBS. The game will be available locally via the following stations: WROC channel 8 (Rochester area), WIVB channel 4 (Buffalo area), WTVH channel 5 (Syracuse area), WKTV channel 2 (Utica area), WENY channel 2 (Elmira area), WRGB channel 10 (Albany area), and WBNG channel 12 (Binghamton area).
∎ Online streaming services: You can watch games on NFL.com and the NFL mobile app, and you can subscribe to NFL+, the league’s own streaming service, though you can’t cast the games to your TV - you must watch on your phone or tablet.
∎ TV streaming: You can also stream games if you have subscriptions to Spectrum, DirecTV, fuboTV, Sling, Vidgo, Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, and Paramount+.
On the radio: How to listen to the Bills vs Dolphins game
You can listen on SiriusXM satellite radio on channel 382 (Bills feed) and channel 227 (Dolphins feed), and on traditional radio, the Bills Radio Network has stations all across the state. Chris Brown has the play-by-play, Eric Wood is the analyst, and Sal Capaccio is the sideline reporter. The network includes:
Rochester (WCMF 96.5 and WROC 950 AM)
Buffalo (WGR550, 550 AM)
Syracuse (WTKW 99.5/WTKV 105.5)
Binghamton (WDRE 100.5FM)
Ithaca (WIII 99.9/100.3 FM)
Bath (WVIN 98.3 FM)
Newark (WACK 1420 AM)
Dansville (WDNY 93.9 FM)
Elmira (WNGZ 1490 AM)
Auburn (WAUB 98.1 FM/1590 AM)
Geneva (WGVA 95.9 FM, 1240 AM)
Sal Maiorana has covered the Buffalo Bills for four decades including 35 years as the full-time beat writer for the D&C, and he has written numerous books about the history of the team. He can be reached at maiorana@gannett.com, and you can follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Buffalo Bills schedule, Week 9: What to know about Dolphins game
