The Miami Dolphins head north to play the second half of their home-and-home series against the Buffalo Bills this weekend. While the Dolphins have been trying to right their ship, winning four of their last six, the Bills have been trying to stop their free fall, having lost their last six games - including the 35-8 dismantling at the hands of the Dolphins.
To try to figure out what is going on in Buffalo, I turned to one of the best bloggers in SB Nation, Brian Galliford from Buffalo Rumblings. Asking him, "There were a legion of Miami Dolphins fans ready to jump on the Buffalo bandwagon this year, simply because it would mean the Patriots and Jets wouldn't win the AFC East. But, the wheels seem to have fallen off that wagon. What's happened in Buffalo to fall from 5-2 to 5-8?" Galliford responded:
"Pretty much everything you could imagine, from a run on major injuries to straight up terrible play. The team is a shell of its former self, literally and figuratively."
Following that up with this question, "There have been a ton of stories recently about coach Chan Gailey having to come to the defense of Ryan Fitzpatrick. Last week, Fitzpatrick went 13-for-34, for 176 yards and two interceptions. At the start of the year, it seemed like Fitzpatrick was the answer to everything in Buffalo, and everyone was behind him. Have the critics, and the fans, turned against him? Has his play over the last few weeks been that erratic?" Galliford answered:
"He has largely been terrible for six weeks now, and the team is 0-6 in that stretch, so of course he's being criticized. I wouldn't say that fans have turned against him, but maybe that's because comparatively I still can't forget the Trent Edwards vitriol I sifted through for two years. Fitzpatrick's defenders have been quiet, to say the least."
With the Dolphins a shell of the team we all expected to see this year, and dealing with a coaching change this week following the firing of Tony Sparano, this game will come down to which struggling team executes better. This game could be a very entertaining one. Or, it could be a blow out - and it could be a blow out either way.