Fins Week… early thoughts?

[sukie]

It is so much more pleasant living here when the Fins blow. Now it’s Fin country again. it’s been a good run. (Sigh)

Bills are at -2.5

I know how this is gonna go. Fins strike deep on a timing slant to Hill before anyone settles in on D.

they rely on timing. Then play action. The D needs to be disruptive upfront and the secondary has to scheme up some hybrid zone man looks.

you bet there are practices with Hardy going deep middle


just remember. They come out and swing for the fence. All is not lost at that point. Josh needs to control clock and work that D rated 21st.

[Kenny]

Josh needs to play like a top QB. The last 2 wins he's played well, but it was really the D dominating both games and giving the team momentum. Even though we outplayed Washington, we left a lot of points on the field - And despite how the game felt, we only scored 16points well into the 3rd quarter.

Cant do that against the Fins.

[daryls61]

Fins +3 is the bet. Buy the hook.

[Chet]

Our secondary has looked SLOW, and the Dolphins have 4 of the fastest guys in the league at skill positions. With that said, the game will come down to three questions:

1) Which Josh shows up?
2) Can we generate pressure with front four?
3) Is McDermott capable of in-game adjustments that we will almost assuredly need after Miami lands a couple haymakers.

It’s crazy to think that a playoff team coming off a 70 burger is a dog, but just goes to show Vegas is still in love with Buffalo.

We need to see something from our coaches. The days of out-classing our divisional opponents on talent alone are over. There’s no Commanders or Raiders in this division

[Woodman]

Keep Josh clean and we'll be fine.

[notacon]

This situation is eerily similar to last year....but with some HUGE differences.

Last year Miami starts with two wins. Tua looks great and the Tyreek Hill acquisition has fast results.

Week 2 win (before the Bills game) is on the road in a shoot out (Baltimore is WAY better than Denver) with Miami winning 42-38. Tua is ON FIRE....36/50, 469 yards, SIX TD’s, 2 INTs.

Hill (and Waddle) have amazing games. Hill catches 11 balls for 190 yards and 2 TDs. Waddle is right behind him with 11 catches, 171 yards and 2 TD’s. Miami outguns Baltimore 547 total yards to 473.

The whole NFL media is talking about how Miami is “unstoppable”. Until they run into the buzzsaw of the Bills defense.

Tua is brought to earth (literally with Milano crashing him to the ground) 13/18 only 186 yards, 1 TD. Tyreek Hill is almost invisible....2 catches for 33 yards. Waddle did pick up the slack....4/102 but no TD’s.

Basically, Miami’s high flying offense was brought back to reality. The Bills outgunned the Fins a whopping 497 total yards to just 212.

The Bills lost because of several factors. Josh Allen fumbled the ball three times. The second one was devastating. After an efficient opening TD drive (Allen fumbled on Miami’s four yard line but fell on it himself) to go ahead 7-0, and the Bills defense stops Miami cold (on 5 plays, allowing only 13 yards) Josh fumbles and Miami gets the ball on Buffalo's SIX yard line. A gift tying TD.

The inexplicable short hopping an almost sure go ahead TD pass on 4th down with 1:49 to play.

The defense stuffed Miami for -1 yard on 3 plays but had the bad luck of a safety on the "butt punt” instead of getting the ball in much better field position.

The two biggest factors were the critical injuries to four starters who were OUT (Tre’ White, Micah Hyde, Dane Jackson, Ed Oliver (plus Jordan Phillips, while Gabe Davis was slowed down by an ankle sprain...Dawson Knox was also questionable for the game), and the game being in Miami in the unfair (on the away side of the field broiling to 120 degrees while not allowing the Bills to have cooling fans), dangerous heat which had several Bills falling like flies because of cramping and adverse effects from the heat.

This week, same high flying Fins offense has the league buzzing. Except this time the game is in Buffalo. NO unfair dangerous advantage caused by excessive heat. NO INJURIES to ANY Of the Bills (except Von Miller).

The additions of Ray Floyd and Poona Ford are a noticeable upgrade. James Cook is tough to stop and Harris and Murray bring much needed toughness to the running game.

Josh had his terrible, no-good, awful performance out of his system after the week one debacle and has been a Miami KILLER since he’s been in the league.

I still expect a close, exciting game. Possibly a shoot out. I think that CBS Sports John Breech is inspired with this prediction....

If you have anything planned for Sunday at 1 p.m., I would go ahead and cancel it now, because you definitely don't want to miss this game. I don't care if you're scheduled to deliver a baby on Sunday at 1, tell the kid to wait three hours. As we all know, babies are very patient, so asking a baby to wait three more hours shouldn't be a big deal.

This is just the 11th game in NFL history to feature two teams that are both coming off a win of 34 points or more. I'm sure you heard about the Dolphins and the fact that they scored 70 points, but the Bills were also impressive in Week 3. Their 37-3 win over the Commanders somehow flew under-the-radar, but that's probably because Miami's 70-point game broke the radar.

This game is giving us the unstoppable force (Miami's offense) against the immovable object (Buffalo's defense). The Dolphins have the NFL's highest-scoring offense and they'll be going up against a Bills defense that has surrendered the second-fewest points in the league through three weeks.

I would break down how those two sides are going to do agianst each other, but I'm not going to, because I think this game is going to do come to the play of Josh Allen. If there is one team that Allen has absolutely dominated in his career, it's the Dolphins. Miami just hasn't been able to figure out how to stop Allen. It's like asking a toddler to solve a puzzle that has 7,000 pieces. They don't even know where to start.

In Allen's last 10 games against the Dolphins, including the playoffs, he's gone 9-1 against them and the only loss was by two points. He's thrown at least two touchdown passes in 11 straight games against the Dolphins, which is an NFL record for consecutive games with multiple touchdowns against one team. He's averaging 276.2 passing yards per game and 52.2 rushing yards per game in his career against Miami, which makes him just one of two quarterbacks in NFL history to average at least 250 yards passing and 50 yards rushing against a single team.

When Josh Allen plays the Dolphins, he is the unstoppable force AND the immovable object. I don't even know if that makes sense, but if there is one thing that does make sense, it's Allen beating the Bills.

If the Dolphins score 70 this week, Allen will make sure the Bills score 71.

The pick:Bills 34-31 over Dolphins

[ghz in pittsburgh]

Out of Miami's 3 games, 2 opposing coaches admitted that Miami turned the games into a track meet. Only Belichick managed to avoid that. He mixed in a lot of 3 safeties looks, basically having 5 DBs to take away the explosive plays. I think the Bills, with Taron Johnson's ability for run support, is more capable than the Patriots to deploy that strategy.

Miami actually adapted to Patriots' 3 safeties by pushing wide horizontally at the LB level because there are only 2 LBs on the field. Again I think the Bills are well equipped, assuming Bernard is the real deal who can handle covering RB/TEs.

There will be leakages - I'm actually concerned about Poyer and Hyde, especially Poyer, who seems to have lost a step or half, and the Bills are notorious for losing contains to fast RBs. I'd happy the Bills give up only 2 big plays to Miami. The rest will be on Allen and the offense. They need to score into the 30s again to win.

[Forward_Lateral]

3 things I'm looking for on the Defensive side, because I'm not worried about the offense.

1.) Do not play man to man. I don't care how good you think Tre is or anyone else, for that matter. Hill will absolutely destroy you in man. You cannot let them get quick scores/huge plays.

2.) Don't let them gash you on the ground. Miami tore **** up last week. Stop the run, force them into longer 2nd and 3rd downs. Put your defense in a good position.

3.) Get to Tua, if you can't get to him, get your arms up and deflect passes. Miami throws a lot of timing/quick patterns. Disrupt that. Their O-line has only given up 2 sacks this season. There's a reason. They don't let Tua sit there and hold the ball. Counter that by playing zone and bumping the WRs off at the LOS, disrupting timing.

[Buffalogic]

Miami is a fraud team. A copycat sf scheme with the weakest armed qb in the league. All smoke and mirrors. Cover the middle of the field and generate a rush and it’s game over. Tua can’t throw outside the number unless he has a 7 yard running head start so pressure and affecting their timing is paramount since they have a one dimensional passing game.

[sukie]

They do a lot of KC things with shovel passes etc.

[ghz in pittsburgh]

One more thing. Tua is known to rarely throw deep sidelines, probably due to arm strength. The 3 safeties Belichick deployed generally brackets the middle field. He let corners to handle sideline shots one on one.

There is a reason Belichick is known to force you beat him left-handed: he takes your best punch away. Tua's best throws are deep middle. Denver just didn't take the notice. Peyton is either arrogant or not that good a HC after all.

[jamze132]

We’ll see how stubborn McDermott’s defense is this week. He needs to call a much different scheme.

[Woodman]

We’ll see how stubborn McDermott’s defense is this week. He needs to call a much different scheme.

They change depending on opponent ..... or you're not a very smart coach.


TAKE AWAY THE MIDDLE make Tua uncomfortable.

[OpIv37]

This is gonna be ugly. I don’t see how we keep up with them. Josh is going to have to be perfect.

It’s also must-win. If we lose, we will have 2 losses in both the Div and the conf, and we will be 2 games and a tiebreaker behind the Fish. People will say that it’s a long season and that stuff doesn’t matter in week 4, but one loss can be the difference between home field advantage in the playoffs. With the way Miami is playing, one win could cost us the Div.

[Turf]

I think Miami shot their wad last week and stats say they will come back to earth. And is the pervading thought here, take away the middle of the field and make him throw wide. Keep arms up in the air, he needs a passing lane. Bernard should look for his passing lanes and go there.

[Jimkelly12203]

I think Miami shot their wad last week and stats say they will come back to earth. And is the pervading thought here, take away the middle of the field and make him throw wide. Keep arms up in the air, he needs a passing lane. Bernard should look for his passing lanes and go there.

Our secondary is savvy, but probably way too slow (old) to handle the speed Miami is going to bring.

I think McD will do a good job equaling the other McD schematically.

Our LBs are light and fast and instinctive. That will help.

Our defensive line is pretty big and fast. Tua is short. Get your hands up! That will help.

Bottom line, we're going to have to out score them.

This is not a week for Josh to play conservative. But if we can get more of these wonderful, sustained, 10+ play drives that eat up 8 minutes of the clock... That would be the recipe for success.

If we lose, it isn't the end of the world, but it does put us in a pretty big hole in the division.

Tua is no freaking joke man... The dude is frail, but he can play!

I think this one is going to be a shoot out.

Josh is going to have to be superman in this game. Most games, we just need him to stay grounded and level headed.

Not this game.

This is the game where we unleash incredible hulk Josh and just roll the dice. He will either destroy everything or save the day. Bruce Banner time BayBee.

Historically, Josh is a Fish murderer!

[Jimkelly12203]

Keep Josh clean and we'll be fine.

Most games, we just need Josh to play smart. Not this week. I think this week we unleash sugar high Josh and let the chips fall where they may. Sugar high Josh kills things. Sometimes it is suicide, but more often than not, he kills the other guys. This week, I say eff it!

[Novacane]

I'm expecting the worse and hoping for the best. I'm used to seeing our D shut down crap QB's then getting run over by good ones. I'm glad we're having this test early so we know if they're real or fake. Even if the D is for real Miami will move the ball. If they are for real they will force FG's instead of TD's and get a couple turnovers. If they do that and Josh has his best game so far this year I think we'll win.

[sukie]

Elam and Hamlin suit up this week? Both are quick and Elam is known to be better in Man cover….

[YardRat]

Elam and Hamlin suit up this week? Both are quick and Elam is known to be better in Man cover….

If they play man they might as well concede right now.