That's '70s streak was a great experience. Mercury Morris and O.J. Simpson were big buddies. Mercury always seemed to have extra energy against Buffalo, and a determination to extend the dominance. Early in the decade the rivalry wasn't competitive. The '72 home game is a misleading final score. Once they got the Electric Company fame the following season the media tried to tout Buffalo's opportunity. I knew it was a joke, since their quarterbacking with Joe Ferguson simply wasn't good enough, and Miami was too strong in general.
Later in the decade it got more sticky. I remember the game that worried me most. It was second to last week in 1976. The Dolphins were injured and simply not very good. Playing out the string with no playoffs for the first time in the Shula era. Big opportunity for the Bills to steal that one in the Orange Bowl. It turned into a wild game for that era with offense everywhere. O.J. had a huge touchdown down the left sideline. The Dolphins benefited from turnovers and ended up pulling away comfortably. The next week we hosted Minnesota on Saturday in the season finale and I suspected it would be a disaster. Sure enough. That was a humbling game. I remember being numbed at how far we had slipped in relation to the Vikings after trouncing them in the Super Bowl less than 3 years earlier.
At the end of the decade Buffalo was desperate to avoid the bagel. The league tried to comply, assigning Miami at Buffalo to open the season in '78 and '79. Both games were low scoring incredibly physical tense games. The Dolphin defense overachieved, compared to full season level.
The '79 opener is particularly memorable due to surrounding details. A hurricane was bearing down on Miami, the first major threat in a decade or so. The entire community was frantically boarding up and moving furniture around that afternoon in precaution. I remember securing things from room to room while catching glimpses of the game on various TVs throughout the house. My parents were telling me to forget about the game. The hurricane was scheduled to make landfall in maybe 12 hours, in the middle of the night. I walked the neighborhood after the game. Dolphins had prevailed 9-7. The wind was starting to pick up and it felt eery. I fell asleep only to wake up at maybe 5 AM. What happened? No sign of distressing weather. Turned out the hurricane had veered away at the last minute, all but sparing South Florida.
The 20th game was again a defensive struggle but at home I didn't have many worries. Come to think of it, I guess Miami had Fury of Anti Revenge in every home game against Buffalo in that era. Too bad I didn't know. Would have been immensely enjoyable.