This weeks Thursday Night Football sees AFC East rivals, the Miami Dolphins and the Buffalo Bills, go head to head in Buffalo. We are getting to the must win stage for both sides and the losers will find themselves too far behind New England, and running out of games.
Miami come into the game after their worst performance of the season. Sunday's, 37-3, home loss to the Tennessee Titans, was an embarrassing result for the Dolphins. A reaction is required and a Thursday night game against a divisional rival, will be just the tonic the Dolphins require. The players will be hurting and what better way is there to get over a bad loss than taking on a divisional opponent, just four days later, in a nationally televised game. The Dolphins have a good record against Buffalo, winning six of the last eight in the series.
The Bills have lost there last three games but they had chances to win at least two of those. The Bills aren't a great team and they are still a little off being a serious playoff contender. Their wins this year have come against the Browns, the Chiefs and the Cardinals. Those three are 7-20 for the year.
The Bills have a few key players missing this week, most notably, Fred Jackson and Chris Kelsay. CJ Spiller will be the teams number one rusher and much of the Bills hopes will rest on his shoulders.
The match ups in this game look to be tight and the game could go either way. Miami's defense are similarly ranked to Buffalo's offense. Miami are 28th in pass defense, against Buffalo's pass offense who are 25th. Miami are 5th in run defense and should be able to keep a lid on CJ Spiller, who will lead, Buffalo's 6th ranked running game. Miami's passing game is ranked 21st in the league and are matched against the Bills pass defense who are 20th in the league. The one part of this game where there is a big difference between the two sides is Miami's running game, against the Bills run defense. The Bills are 32nd in run defense and although the Dolphins are only 19th, they do have a potentially explosive running-back in Reggie Bush. Bush has slowed down in recent weeks after a bright start but the Bills bring out the best in him. He ran for a career high, 203 yards against them last year and I think he will be the difference in tonight's game.
Prediction - Reggie Bush to have a big day and lead the Dolphins back to .500.
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