The Dolphins aren’t thinking of revenge. That doesn’t diminish the magnitude of Bills game
An eventful Dolphins season with endless twists and turns — dazzling moments that sparked optimism in a franchise that hasn’t seen it to that degree in years, coupled with unforeseen, trying moments — had suddenly come to an end.
Players and coaches tightly packed into the road locker room at Highmark Stadium in mid-January, proud of the strides they made over the last several months but disappointed in the end result.
As coach Mike McDaniel addressed the room in the aftermath of a 34-31 loss to the Buffalo Bills, his message was simple.
“We’ll be back,” Dolphins linebacker Jerome Baker recalled.
On Sunday, the Dolphins will return to Orchard Park, New York, for the first time since that season-ending loss. The stakes aren’t as high as when Miami met its divisional rival in the playoffs, but it’s as compelling of an early-season matchup as one will find.
Miami (3-0) is one of three undefeated teams remaining in the NFL, seeking its first 4-0 start since 1995. And the Dolphins have captivated the league after a record-setting 70-point outing against the Denver Broncos in Week 3. The historic start to the season for Miami’s high-flying offense has garnered comparisons to some of the greatest units of all time. But players and coaches have quickly downplayed any coronation, noting that it’s still just one game in the first month of the season, with many that lie ahead.
The Dolphins’ upcoming opponent is a reminder of the greater goals they desire to achieve past a scoring record, too.
The Dolphins are 1-9 in their last 10 games, including the postseason, against the Bills (2-1), and Miami hasn’t won at Highmark Stadium since 2016. But last season’s trilogy showed just how much — and how quickly — the gap has closed.
Miami defeated the Bills by two points in a scorching Week 3 meeting at Hard Rock Stadium, before falling short by three points in a Week 15 road matchup, one that left the field blanketed with snow just as the tide began to turn in favor of the home team.
And the Bills took the all-important rubber match in the playoffs, as the Dolphins’ season ended in the wild-card round, a game that saw rookie quarterback Skylar Thompson start and almost lead Miami to an improbable comeback with Tua Tagovailoa and Teddy Bridgewater injured.
For all the attention the Dolphins have received after their 70-20 rout, the Bills may be the second-hottest team in the league. Since falling flat in a season-opening loss to the New York Jets, Buffalo has won its last two games by a combined 62 points. The Bills’ 30.3-point average only trails the Dolphins (43.3).
And there’s still an acknowledgment that any hopes of being a legitimate AFC contender start first with winning the AFC East, which Buffalo has done in each of the last three seasons.
Defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah struggled to characterize the burgeoning rivalry, given how lopsided it’s been in favor of the Bills.
“I really don’t know. I guess I’ve lost to them more times than I’ve won,” he said. “It’s just I want to beat them bad because they beat us multiple times. That’s just the goal, to beat them pretty much.”
Players and coaches publicly haven’t tacked any additional motivation to the highly-anticipated matchup.
Right tackle Austin Jackson said: “I don’t use terms like statement games and stuff life that.”
Offensive coordinator Frank Smith, asked whether revenge comes into play this weekend, called it a “fleeting motivation that disappears early into a game.”
While the core of both teams remain intact, McDaniel noted that both squads have undergone alterations since they last met eight months ago. For the Dolphins, no change will be more pronounced than the presence of Tagovailoa, the early Most Valuable Player front-runner who was sidelined from the playoff game because of a concussion.
And more so than harboring bitter emotions toward an individual opponent, on multiple occasions, McDaniel has referred to the sting of the season ending prematurely as a reminder of the margins for a team that has championship aspirations.
“I think that being the last game that we played in 2022 ... and it was a hard-fought loss down the stretch of the season. Those things, they do live with you in terms of what that felt like,” McDaniel said. “So to me, it really represents the idea of the P’s and the Q’s that we have to be on to have a result that’s different than the one last year.”
