Week 14: Bills vs. Dolphins
vs.
Sunday, Dec. 7th
4:05pm ET
What a difference a month and a week makes. When these two teams first met earlier this year in Miami the Bills had a three game lead on the Dolphins. They lost that day and it started the downward spiral that has landed the Bills in last place looking up at Miami. The Dolphins have turned things around very quickly behind the leadership of Bill Parcells and rookie head coach Tony Sparano. They have won five out of six starting with that game while the Bills have lost five of six. Buffalo is the team just playing out the string and will find it hard to get up for this landmark game in Toronto.

FACTS AND FIGURES

Matchup: Buffalo (6-6) vs. Miami (7-5)
Place: Rogers Centre, Toronto
Television: CBS
Announcers: Kevin Harlan and Rich Gannon
Spread: Bills by 1
Series: Dolphins lead 51-37-1 (Bills 3-1 in playoffs)
Streak: Dolphins Won 1
Last Meeting: Dolphins 25-16 in Miami (2008)
Dolphins Offense: Rush (13th); Pass (8th); overall (10th)
Dolphins Defense: Rush (11th); Pass (26th); overall (18th)
Bills Offense: Rush (20th); Pass (15th); overall (20th)
Bills Defense: Rush (17th); Pass (14th); overall (12th)


INJURY UPDATE

The Bills are very banged up starting with their starting quarterback. Trent Edwards is likley out after suffering a groin injury last week against San Francisco. Aaron Schobel is practicing but likely will not play this week. Jabari Greer, Donte Whitner, Teddy Lehman, Robert Royal, and Copeland Bryan all missed last week's game but Whitner at least should return this week.

The Dolphins are pretty healthy. OG Justin Smiley broke his ankle and is out. WR Greg Camarillo has been placed on injured reserve. CB Jason Allen has a hand injury but is practicing and should play.

Check out Bills Daily's Injury Page for the latest on the banged up players.

KEY MATCHUPS

LT Jason Peters vs. LB Joey Porter:
Porter had a huge game in the first matchup between the two teams and he leads the league with 14 sacks. Peters is playing better as of late and hopefully he can keep Porter from being too disruptive.

RBs Marshawn Lynch vs. LB Channing Crowder:
Lynch is playing very well as of late and he now is finding holes in the running game. Crowder will likely fill some of those holes as he has 89 tackles on the season.

DB Terrence McGee vs. WR Ted Ginn Jr.:
McGee got burned to a crisp by Ginn in the first matchup but he was playing at much less than 100% because of a knee injury. McGee is healthy now and playing well so he should do a much better job this time around.

DE Ryan Denney vs. OT Jake Long:
Denney is coming off possibly his best game of his career in the loss to San Francisco. Long is a bright, rising young star who will give Denney all he can handle. That will make it tough to get to Pennington since he'll be using a quick release.

WR Lee Evans vs. CB Andre Goodman:
Evans could have a big day against Goodman. His chances increase if his good buddy J.P. Losman is in at quarterback.

DT Marcus Stroud vs. RBs Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams:
It will be a homecoming of sorts for Williams as he heads back to the place he played for one year when he was banished to the CFL. Stroud needs to clog up the middle well to keep this one-two punch from getting going.

GAME PLAN

When The Bills Have The Ball: Turk Schonert is in love with the passing game and with Miami having a suspect secondary. So expect the Bills to attack through the air at least two-thirds of the time even though they should probably be a bit more balanced.

When The Dolphins Have The Ball: Miami will try to use a mixture of runs and passes as well as their patented wildcat formation to move the football on the Bills. Look for Pennington to do a lot of play action passes and throw it short on slant patterns. That is his bread and butter and the Bills are vulnerable to the short passing game.

BILLS DAILY PREDICTION

The Bills won't have their normal December home field advantage against the Dolphins (they are 7-2 against Miami in Buffalo in December). The game will be in the closed and sealed dome stadium leveling the playing field. Of course the way these Bills play in cold weather they may get the break playing indoors. There may actually be more Dolphins fans in the stadium than Bills fans for this one as Canada isn't exactly Bills country. The Dolphins are confident and playing extremely well, the Bills are in chaos and struggling with no confidence. How are the Bills even favored? This game is an easy one to call:
Dolphins 23, Bills 6

Season Prediction Record: (7-5)
Season Record Against The Spread: (8-4)

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