Dolphins
vs.
Bills
Week 2
NFL Free Pick
9/14/14
The Buffalo Bills host the Miami Dolphins in an AFC East showdown on Sunday at 1pm. est. Both squads come into this Game off week 1 wins with the Bills upsetting the Bears on the road and the Dolphins knocking off the Patriots in Miami. When the dust settles, one of these teams will be sitting atop the AFC East at 2-0, likely by themselves, providing the Jets lose to the Packers Sunday. Currently this Game is a toss up with the line pick em at sportsbook.ag and a total of 43.
Both of these teams have been mediocre or less, for years. The Bills last had a winning season in 2004 and prior to that it was the late 90’s. The Dolphins haven’t fared much better recently. They last had a winning season in 2008. since then they have had three 7 win seasons, a 6 win season and last years 8-8. Dolphins coach Joe Philbin is one year further along in the process than the Bills Doug Marrone so it’s safe to say Philbin is under a bit more pressure to win, now, not later.
With only one Game played thus far, we have to take a glaNCe back to last season for clues as to which team is more likely to get it done this year. When we do that, we come away with the feeling that the Dolphins are going to be the better team simply from a common sense standpoint. They were the better team a year ago.
These two split their Games last year with each team winning close Games at home. But when you look at each teams body of work, the 8-8 Dolphins were a better team than the 6-10 Bills. Both teams were less than mediocre offensively as their yards per point numbers of around 16 placed them in the bottom 3rd of all NFL teams. The glaring differeNCe though was on defense, where the Dolphins yards per point number of 17.2 placed them 6th overall in the NFL compared to the Bills 13.7 number, which placed them 25th overall.
The Bills may have won last week but the box Scoredoesn’t necessarily reflect the numbers of a winning team. They managed just 15 first downs while the Bears had 29. They had just 360 yards of total offense compared to 427 for the Bears and they GAve up 341 passing yards.
It would simply seem as though the Dolphins are further along in their quest to get back to being a winning football team and the team more likely ready to win NOW. They look to still be the better of these two teams and with the line pick em, we’re simply being asked to pick a straight up winner.
The public has favored the Dolphins here with 66% of the action coming in on Miami and this is a spot where we think the public may have it right. Dolphins pk