Miami Dolphins-Buffalo Bills Week 9 Five Biggest Storylines

The Miami Dolphins will look to move their record to 3-5 when they take on the Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium in a crucial game when it comes to their playoff hopes.

The Dolphins are coming off a disappointing 28-27 loss to the Arizona Cardinals in Tua Tagovailoa’s return to the lineup. The Bills are 6-2 after a 31-10 win against the Seattle Seahawks at Lumen Field last weekend.

The Dolphins will try to defeat the Bills for just the second time since the start of the 2019 season.

Here are the five biggest stories for this Week 9 matchup.

The one common denominator in the Bills’ recent dominance against the Dolphins and in the AFC East is quarterback Josh Allen, who should be among the leading candidates for NFL MVP through the first eight weeks of the 2024 season. Allen’s numbers against the Dolphins are borderline crazy, and even though he passed for just 139 yards in the Week 2 game at Hard Rock Stadium, his passer rating was 107.1. Allen threw his first pick of the season against Seattle last week, and it would be a big boost to the Dolphins’ hopes if they could get one against him in this game.

Here’s a totally crazy stat when you think about it: In the last three Dolphins-Bills matchups, the Dolphins haven’t had a single pass play longer than 24 yards. It came in the 2023 season finale on a Tua Tagovailoa hook-up with Cedrick Wilson Jr. The longest completion in the first matchup of 2023 in Week 4 at Buffalo was 23 yards to running back Alec Ingold. And then the longest in Week 2 this year was a 21-yarder to Jaylen Waddle. It just won’t give the Dolphins much of a chance to win. What the Dolphins need are long connections like Tua had with Waddle in each of the 2022 games — 45 yards in Miami and 67 yards in Buffalo. Tyreek Hill doesn’t have a single catch of at least 25 yards in eight regular-season games against Buffalo, so this would obviously be a good time to change that.

Maybe the Dolphins don’t need a big game in the passing game, but it probably would if the running game can produce big numbers AND come through with some first downs down the stretch. The Dolphins rushed for at least 150 yards in each of their last three games, but they were 1-2 in those games because the passing game failed against Indianapolis and because the defense couldn’t hold a lead against Arizona after the offense didn’t run. off the clock at the end. Raheem Mostert and De’Von Achane have each had a big game against the Bills the past two seasons, and Jaylen Wright also has the talent to break a long one.

The Dolphins will need contributions from all groups if they are going to make it, and something like Cedrick Wilson Jr.’s 50-yard punt return in the 2022 playoffs would help. The Dolphins also cannot afford a missed Jason Sanders field goal because they will be working with a small margin of error.

This should probably be listed higher, but we’ll save it for last. This is the possibility of a signature game for Tagovailoa, who was overall impressive against Arizona last weekend but was still the second-best quarterback on the field that day. The Dolphins gave Tagovailoa his massive contract extension in July because they felt he was the guy who could take them where they want to go. Well, this is the kind of game the Dolphins need to win and where Tua needs to be the best QB on the field that day. Also, a big performance by Tagovailoa would probably make many “salty” fans forget about his comments “sitting on your couch eating crisps”.