Dolphins aren’t the Bills
While we typically focus our takeaways on the Bills, we’re going to bring the Dolphins into the picture on this one… and the idea is simple: The No. 2 team in the AFC East is not Buffalo. Not even close.
Following this one, the Bills ended the year with a 13-3 record. It’s a tie for the Bills’ best single-season record ever. The Dolphins will end the year at a pretty solid 10-6 themselves. But it was very apparent that the Bills have a couple of years worth of experience on this Miami team.
The carousel the Dolphins have had at the quarterback position all season is a bad sign. Ryan Fitzpatrick is their backup QB and if he had not contracted COVID-19 this week, you bet he would have replaced rookie QB Tua Tagovailoa at some point in Week 17.
In fact, the Dolphins looked much like a team similar to the 2017 Bills. In McDermott’s first year at the helm, that team was not supposed to go to the playoffs. Tyrod Taylor was the quarterback still and no one saw that coming, but it happened with some massive help from the Bengals. The group, like the current Dolphins, were led by the defense.
That’s not to say the ’17 Bills weren’t a good team, they just were not close to this Bills team, and neither are the Dolphins. Miami entered this game as the one team that could, maybe… had tried to… stake a claim as a team that could be a thorn in the Bills’ side as they try to become the AFC East’s next dynasty.
Miami looked nothing like that, rather, a distant second. Buffalo’s starters beat up the Dolphins… and then the Bills’ backups did, too. Buffalo won in all three phases.
Josh Norman takes it to the house!
đź“ş #MIAvsBUF on CBS pic.twitter.com/fPfuv3PV9E
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) January 3, 2021