Thursday Night Football Preview: Bills at Dolphins

The Miami Dolphins will visit the Buffalo Bills on Thursday Night in a must win situation for Miami if they are to remain in the AFC Wild Card race. They trail both the Indianapolis Colts and Pittsburgh Steelers by two games. They also are still within two games of the New England Patriots in the AFC East race.

If the Dolphins are to win on Thursday and stay in the playoff chase for another week, they had better have short memories. That is because they are coming off an absolutely embarrassing performance at home on Sunday against a mediocre Tennessee Titans team that pounded them 37-3. Four Miami turnovers led to 20 Tennessee points in the rout.

Buffalo beat the spread at New England even if they didn’t win the game. They went in as an 11 point underdog, but were in the game until the end when Ryan Fitzpatrick threw an interception in the end zone to the Pats Devin McCourty. The Bills amassed an astounding 35 first downs, but 14 penalties and a few costly turnovers ruined their day.

Miami quarterback Ryan Tannehill has shown he has a lot of ability. He has had a fin rookie season  especially being made the starter in the preseason. One thing he needs is to be more consistent. But, with that, a bad game one week may mean a good one the next week, so that may be bad news for Buffalo.

BetOnline has Miami +1 +100 0r +105. Buffalo is -1 120 or -125. Over/under is 45.5.

Buffalo and Miami are bitter rivals going way back. The Bills and their fans consider the Dolphins their most hated rivals. The two cities could not be more different. It’s frigid cold vs sweltering heat. It’s blue collar vs glitz. It’s tough vs laid back. It’s two polar opposites who both play in the same division.

In this one, anything could happen. Neither of these teams is very consistent. Both have been blown out on more then one occasion. Both have hung tough in games that they were big underdogs in. So with all that in mind, we will go with Miami straight up and the under. Why? Why not. At he end of the day, the Dolphins seem to have a little bit better team. On Friday, we may have to take that last statement back though.