Dolphins aiming to avoid getting Buffaloed again
The Dolphins would do more than qualify for the NFL playoffs if they beat the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. They would buck a troubling trend that has lasted decades.
Just imagine, if you can, what the Dolphins’ history might look like if the Buffalo Bills never existed.
If Lamar Hunt never targeted Western New York for an expansion team of the American Football League six decades ago. If Ralph Wilson decided to spend his fortune on another pursuit.
If Jim Kelly stayed in the USFL. If Bills Mafia never crashed through a single folding table.
The Dolphins would likely have another championship or two. Dan Marino would almost certainly own a Super Bowl ring. Adam Gase — and even Joe Philbin — might have a different legacy.
And maybe Don Shula would have gone out on top.
This is all an elaborate way of saying the Bills, for decades now, have been a big-time pain in the backside for the Dolphins. They’ve wrecked seasons, derailed careers and devastated fans.
And they have a chance to do it once again this Sunday.
The Dolphins, now coached by Brian Flores, are one win away from their first playoff berth since 2016.
The problem is, to get that
win, they’ll need to beat their biggest rival, their top tormentor and arguably the best team in the NFL in 2020.
And they’ll have to do so in Buffalo, where the Dolphins have won just once in their past eight trips.
“It’s something about them,” said Dolphins linebacker Jerome Baker. “They have a unique offense. They have a unique way of how they do things. I know they don’t have fans now [because of COVID-19], but when you throw in going up there, the fans, how they play the game, I guess we just didn’t come out with a win my [first two] years. Hopefully that changes.” It better.
While the Dolphins enter Week 17 as the AFC’s fifth seed, a loss would probably keep them from the postseason. In the race for four playoff spots, they are one of five AFC teams tied at 10-5.
And while they could get in even with a loss Sunday if the Colts, Browns or Ravens also lose, that scenario seems unlikely.
All three of those aforementioned teams are heavy favorites Sunday. The Dolphins are road underdogs, even if there is a strong suspicion leaguewide that the Bills, who weeks ago clinched their first AFC East title since 1995, will rest quarterback Josh Allen and several other starters for at least part of the game.
So you can forgive Dolphins supporters for some nerves. They’ve seen this movie before. More than once.
Most recently: In 2017, when a mid-December loss in Buffalo — or more accurately, Orchard Park, New York — effectively ended the team’s playoff hopes.
But that long-forgotten game was just a footnote in the rich history of these franchises.
For much of the past three decades, the Bills have stymied the Dolphins at nearly every turn. That includes in the early 1990s, when Buffalo was the best team in the conference. And that includes the 2000s, when Buffalo was one of the worst.
This is the franchise that beat Shula and Marino in the playoffs three times in six seasons — including at the stadium now known as Hard Rock in the 1992 season’s AFC Championship Game. (Marino went 13-17 in his career against the Bills and 134-78 against everyone else.)
Three years later, Kelly and Marv Levy beat Miami in the playoffs again, ending Shula’s record-breaking career.
Miami’s lone postseason victory over Buffalo came 22 years ago Saturday, when a Jimmy Johnson-led team prevailed at home in the wild-card round, only to lose to the Broncos the following weekend.
The Bills would return to the playoffs just once in the next 18 years. But in the meantime, they helped get a number of Dolphins coaches fired.
Philbin lasted just over three seasons in Miami largely because he lost five of seven games against the
Bills.
Gase lasted exactly three seasons in Miami partially because he lost three of his last four games against the Bills, including the 42-17 debacle in the 2018 finale that ended both Gase’s and Ryan Tannehill’s time with the Dolphins.
Every rule has an exception or two, of course, and for Gase, that exception came on Christmas Eve 2016, late in his first year as Dolphins coach.
Those Dolphins were in nearly an identical position as these: Needing a win in wintry conditions to have a realistic path to the playoffs. They prevailed in overtime in dramatic fashion and punched their ticket.
Flores, meanwhile, has yet to beat the Bills in three meetings. But none of those three prior encounters carried close to the significance of Sunday’s game.
“I know the rivalry,” Flores said. “I know it well. I think every game’s important to the fans on both sides. Obviously, this is a division game. But the Dolphins fans, the Bills fans, these are die-hard fans who root for their teams through thick and thin. This one’s no different.
“There’s a lot of great players over the years on both sides. I’m humbled and honored to be a part of it.”