The Miami Dolphins have returned to their home state of Florida for a Sunday night matchup with the Buffalo Bills for a Week 18 matchup at Hard Rock Stadium.
While Mike McDaniel’s team has had extreme peaks this season, including a 70-point performance against the Denver Broncos, they’ve also had some deep valleys like last week’s 56-19 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. Now, the Dolphins need to beat the Bills to secure their first AFC East title since 2008.
Buffalo has had their ups and downs this season, which has included losses to the New England Patriots and New York Jets as well as wins over the Kansas City Chiefs and Dallas Cowboys. If they go into Miami Gardens and complete the season sweep of the Dolphins, they’ll steal the division title and become the No. 2 seed in the AFC heading into the wild-card round.
Here are a few things that the Dolphins and Bills fanbases should know and think about before the game:
Rankings
Points scored per game (2023)
- Buffalo (26.9 – 6th)
- Miami (30.1 – 1st)
Points allowed per game (2023)
- Buffalo (18.6 – 4th)
- Miami (23.1 – t-21st)
Yards gained per game (2023)
- Buffalo (368.3 – 5th)
- Miami (409.2 – 1st)
Yards allowed per game (2023)
- Buffalo (309.2 – 10th)
- Miami (308.6 – 9th)
History
The Dolphins are 62-57-1 all-time against the Bills, but they’re 9-19 since 2010. Miami is just 6-7 against Buffalo at Hard Rock Stadium in that span.
These two teams last met in Week 4. In that game, Josh Allen hit Stefon Diggs for three touchdowns and Gabriel Davis for another. Miami got their points from two De’Von Achane rushing scores and a touchdown pass from Tua Tagovailoa to Braxton Berrios. The Dolphins fell 48-20.
Injury concerns
For Miami, Bradley Chubb (torn ACL), Tyreek Hill, Xavien Howard, Raheem Mostert and Jaylen Waddle didn’t participate on Thursday. Limited participants included De’Von Achane, Terron Armstead, Jerome Baker, Lester Cotton, Liam Eichenberg, Jevon Holland, Robert Hunt, Austin Jackson, David Long Jr. and Duke Riley.
For Buffalo, only Damar Hamlin was limited.
Connections
- Dolphins running backs coach/associate head coach Eric Studesville served as the Bills running backs coach from 2004-07 and running game coordinator from 2008-09.
- Dolphins special teams coordinator Danny Crossman held the same role for the Bills from 2013-18.
- Bills safeties coach Joe Danna served as assistant defensive backs for the Dolphins from 2010-11.
- Bills senior offensive assistant Mike Shula is the son of legendary Dolphins coach Don Shula. He also served as a Dolphins coaches’ assistant from 1991-92 and quarterbacks coach from 2000-02.
- Bills long snapper Reid Ferguson is the brother of Dolphins long snapper Blake Ferguson.
- Bills wide receiver Trent Sherfield played for the Dolphins in 2022.
- Bills defensive end Shaq Lawson played for the Dolphins in 2020.
- Dolphins tight end Tyler Kroft played for the Bills from 2019-20.
