The Miami Dolphins are preparing for a critical Week 17 matchup with the Buffalo Bills, setting the stage for Miami to potentially win their way to the No. 5 seed in the AFC playoffs and book a trip to either Indianapolis or Tennessee in the Wild Card round of the playoffs. But between them and the postseason is a Buffalo Bills team that is one of the hottest in all of football. Decoding the intentions of the Buffalo Bills this weekend is something Miami will likely not spend too much time on, but those on the outside are wrestling with what kind of gamesmanship we may see from the Bills.
Miami has everything to gain and everything to lose. They’re coming to Buffalo fully loaded. But the Bills are a win or a Steelers loss away from the No. 2 seed in the AFC. And Pittsburgh has already declared that starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will not play against the Cleveland Browns.
So does that mean the Bills are going to enter Week 17 with their “JV squad” ready to play? Not exactly. Head coach Sean McDermott told the media the Bills plan to keep their intentions “internal”.
#Bills HC Sean McDermott said they're going to "keep the plan internal" for now on whether to rest the starters vs. the Dolphins, especially because he hasn't had a chance to talk to the players yet. But they do have a plan for the week that they established today.
— Joe Buscaglia (@JoeBuscaglia) December 29, 2020
Uh huh. We heard something similar from the Bills last season when they were locked into the No. 5 seed in the AFC — before the team sat starters like CB Tre’Davious White, WRs Cole Beasley and John Brown and RB Devin Singletary. And then, after kickoff in Week 17 against the Jets last year, the Bills pulled QB Josh Allen after just 5 pass attempts and let backup QB Matt Barkley throw the ball 35 times. The Bills lost 13-6.
So Bills coach Sean McDermott will let gamesmanship take center stage. Perhaps it is with the intent of keeping his players in a routine as they look to extend their hot stretch of play through a “bridge” game against the Dolphins before the start playing for keeps in the postseason. Perhaps McDermott would like to use this chance to pull out what a competitive Dolphins game plan would look like against the Bills in case these two teams clash in the postseason.
But they’ll certainly get a good look at one if that’s the case, because Miami can’t afford to lose and let help push them into the postseason. Expect a long week on the “will they, won’t they” front from the Bills, Dolphins fans. But how Buffalo has started the week seems to indicate we’re getting a similar play to how Buffalo did things in 2019.