Mind you that I'm always loathe to predict a blowout, but this is going to be a blowout.
The key factor will be Daunte Culpepper. People may think that Daunte showed something new against the Steelers (as in a new trend of suckiness) but he really did not. The Steelers game represents the kind of game Daunte is and has always been prone to having against top quality defenses when you don't give him run support and your defense has trouble getting off the field. That will probably always be the case, too.
But Daunte is also prone to having those unbelievable outings when he completes over 70% of his passes, throws a bunch of touchdowns, rushes for some yardage, and wins the game...against questionable defenses. Simply put, he is and always has been a matchup nightmare for low quality defenses. His arm is too much for their secondary to handle, his legs are too much for their defensive line to handle.
Add to that the Dolphins' offensive skill set with Chambers, Booker, Welker, McMichael, and Brown, and there are just too many viable options for the Bills defense to handle. I'm not saying we'll score 38 points. I am predicting more along the lines of 24 points with a HEAVILY lopsided time of possession.
On defense the Bills will just not be able to string together drives. For all the flack that our secondary got for their play last week, they had three communications errors that resulted in touchdowns. Take those errors out and Charlie Batch was throwing for a piss poor ypa, and not a very good percentage either.
What the Steelers had that allowed them to string drives together in the second half, was three of the best bangers in the business on the inside in Alan Faneca, Jeff Hartings, and Kendall Simmons. They WORE US DOWN on the inside. The Bills inside trio of Reyes, Fowler, and Villarial look like amateurs compared to last week's trio. That's ok; most inside trios including our own look like amateurs compared to Faneca-Hartings-Simmons.
The Bills have neither the will, nor the means to do the same thing (wear us down on the inside). Their Martz-style offense is predicated on speed. Peerless Price, Lee Evans, Roscoe Parrish, and even tight end Kevin Everett are all athletically gifted and fast. Luckily for the Dolphins, we're no longer fielding guys like Sam Madison, Lance Schulters, and to some extent even Travis Daniels out there. The Dolphins current foursome represents the most athletically-gifted starting secondary they have fielded in a decade. They can physically run with anyone.
After the prominent miscues last weekend, Nick Saban has been drilling those DBs on communication and calls all week long, guaranteed. They'll still make mistakes, but whereas last week the Steelers were able to make them pay for the mistakes with three touchdowns, I'm modeling one touchdown this week for the Bills, with no ground game, one long field drive that results in a field goal, and one short field drive (from a turnover) that results in a field goal.
Dolphins: 24
Bills: 13
Time of possession heavily in the Fins favor, Daunte passer rating 90+, Ronnie Brown 80-90 rushing yards, one of the three touchdowns to Wes Welker, probably on the inside post.
11 points may not seem like a blowout, but the game will actually feel like the Bills were never in control and never had a real chance of winning.
and keep a cold beer in hand because this Sunday will show our true colors and it WILL be a glorious site.:dolphins:
