Your guide to Sunday's Bills-Dolphins game

There is an irony to be found in the reason why Tommy Sweeney had football taken away from him last year.

The Buffalo Bills’ third-year tight end was unable to play in the 2020 season on doctor’s orders, as he became the first, and to date, only known NFL player to develop myocarditis following a Covid-19 infection. Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle that can reduce the organ’s ability to pump and cause rapid or abnormal beating. Left untreated, it can cause permanent heart damage or even cardiac arrest.

The one thing all those echocardiograms last year could never have detected, however, is just how much Sweeney means to the collective heart of the Bills. Now fully recovered from that potentially career-ending – or even worse – ailment, Sweeney is set for the biggest opportunity of his NFL life. With starting tight end Dawson Knox sidelined by a broken hand, Sweeney figures to be prominently involved in the game plan when the Miami Dolphins visit Highmark Stadium at 1 p.m. Sunday.

That’s brought a smile to the Bills’ players and coaches – all of whom positively rave about the 26-year-old from Ramsey, N.J.

“He's probably one of the most interesting guys, not just on the team, but on the planet,” quarterback Josh Allen. “He's awesome to be around. He's one of those guys that just consistently worked, kept his head down, never complained. He doesn't have a whole lot of opportunities in the passing game, but when his number’s called, he usually ends up making the play. He's a guy that guys love being around. He's all about the team, and he wants to do whatever (he) can do to help this team win. … He’s just one of the best dudes on the team.”

That was a common refrain from anyone asked about Sweeney during the week.

“Honestly, not even speaking football, just him as a person – one of the coolest guys on the team,” safety Micah Hyde said. “He’s one of those guys that doesn’t care what anybody thinks and is just Tommy Sweeney, but when he gets on the football field, he can play ball, man.”

“Yeah, I slipped them a $5,” Sweeney said with a laugh when asked if he paid off his teammates to say something nice about him. “No, we've just got such a great team, good guys, so they're probably just being nice. That's how they are.”

While there wasn’t much to celebrate during the Bills’ last game – a disappointing loss to Tennessee on Monday Night Football – Sweeney’s first career touchdown catch was one of the bright spots. That came on a 1-yard reception in the third quarter.

“If you ask my wife, she would say it was her favorite play in the Tennessee game,” tight ends coach Rob Boras said. “That's the first thing I got in the text. … Obviously, she was disappointed in the outcome, but Tommy just has something about him, where people have a great feel for who he is and cheer for him.”

Big shoes to fill

Sweeney entered the NFL as a seventh-round draft pick in 2019, the same year the Bills used a third-round pick on Knox. As such, they’ve come up together, experiencing the highs and lows of life as a professional.

Sweeney has watched as Knox has enjoyed a breakout 2021 season, with five touchdown catches through the first six games. Before leaving the Tennessee game, Knox threw a two-point conversion pass to Allen – with a broken hand.

“I can’t really say enough about Dawson as a guy, as a friend, as a teammate,” Sweeney said. “He’s battled through a lot, and it’s great to see what’s been happening this year.”

While the Bills hope that Knox’s absence is not prolonged, he could miss at least a couple of games. Knox has played 77.7% of the offensive snaps to this point, so that will require an adjustment.

It’s possible the Bills will run more four-wide receiver sets with Gabriel Davis joining Cole Beasley, Stefon Diggs and Emmanuel Sanders on the field, but even if that’s the case, Sweeney will likely get more work against Miami than he has in any other game this season.

“Full confidence in Tommy and I know the players feel the same way, as do the rest of the coaches,” coach Sean McDermott said. “He's worked hard to get back to where he is and contribute. So it's a good story and we're happy for him, albeit it seeing a guy go down in Dawson is not what we want. But next man up.”

Through six games, Sweeney has played 67 offensive snaps – 15% of the team total. In a statistical oddity, he has four catches … for 4 yards. He has a good chance of surpassing those numbers quickly Sunday. Allen has targeted Knox 27 times in the Bills’ first six games, connecting 21 times for 286 yards.

“I'm ready,” Sweeney said. “I've been in this offense for three years – up and down, obviously, with various things – but I'm excited. … I've just got to keep it as normal as possible and just go out and perform.”

“I have 100% confidence in T-Sween,” receiver Stefon Diggs said. “He brings that route running, that technician, that hard worker, that blocker. He brings that mindset that we love on offense and just on our team in general. I love me some T-Sween. I feel like he'll make a lot of plays for us. He does his job extremely well. He can catch and he has a little bit of craft with him. You can't really see it looking at him, but you watch him, he’s gonna make some plays.”

Knox is a superior athlete, but being underestimated is nothing new for Sweeney. Coming out of Don Bosco Prep High School in New Jersey, Sweeney had just one scholarship offer – from Boston College – but that did little to shake his self confidence, his father said.

“He's always had a pretty strong belief in himself,” Bob Sweeney said in a phone interview with The Buffalo News. “Even early on in the recruiting phase, he always had a pretty strong belief that things would work out.”

Sweeney made 99 catches for 1,281 yards and 10 touchdowns during his 50-game college career. As a redshirt senior in 2018, Sweeney was named a first-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference selection after finishing with 32 catches for 348 yards and three touchdowns.

“The thing we've said about Tommy since he was at Boston College and we started evaluating him is he's a football player,” Boras said. “He might not always be the flashiest or one that's going to maybe jump off the tape, but at the end of the day, he knows what he has to do and he puts himself in the best position to do his job. Whether you're a coach or player, that's what you're asked to do. ... I hate using the term that he's a throwback, but this is my 18th, 19th year in the league and he's probably more similar to guys I coached in 2004.

"He knows who he is and he's not going to try to be somebody else, which I think is a great thing.”

That extends to off the field. Allen referred to Sweeney as an “old soul,” and the tight end didn’t push back against that description.

“It's 100% true,” he said. “I like the modern times, there's a lot of good stuff going on, but I'm a big fan of music of the ’60s and ’70s.”

Sweeney, who plays guitar in his free time, has a record collection that he’s combined with his dad's. Together, they have about 200 albums – although some of his father’s favorites got played too much. The entire Led Zeppelin catalog is a big highlight, as is an extensive collection of Grateful Dead albums.

“Their live catalog is pretty big, so it’s tough to get all of them,” Sweeney said. “I think we have all the Rolling Stones. To pick out one favorite, I'm sorry, I don't think I can do it.”

A scary setback

Sweeney’s positive Covid-19 test in 2020 came just as he was about to return from foot surgery that caused him to miss the first six weeks of the season. Before he could return to the field, Sweeney was required to undergo an echocardiogram. That turned up an abnormality that required further consultation. Sweeney traveled to Atlanta to meet with other cardiologists, and his parents expected to receive a call that he was all clear.

Instead, he called to say that he would not be permitted to play.

“It was obviously concerning,” Bob Sweeney said. “The most important thing we were concerned about was his health and what was going to be happening going forward. We were just fact finding, trying to figure out exactly what was going on and what was going to happen going forward."

“Football's always been part of his life, since he was 7,” Sweeney’s mother, Annette, said, “but then when you hear that there could be a heart complication, we were more shocked than anything. He knew we would support him every step of the way. After the initial shock for all of us, we took it in stride and dealt with it.”

The first weekend after Sweeney learned his 2020 season was over before it started, Sweeney returned home. He didn’t stay long, though.

“He came home that first weekend and we just sort of regrouped,” Annette Sweeney said. “He said right away he was going back because he wanted to be there with the team. He sat in on meetings. He watched practice. He did what little he could, as long as his heart rate didn't get above a certain rate. Of course, he liked our support, but he definitely did what he had to do. We didn't have to tell him much, we just needed to be here to listen if he needed to talk.”

Boras made sure to include Sweeney during all his positional meetings last year, quizzing him the same way he would any other player on the active roster or practice squad.

“Even though we knew he wasn't going to play, he was still involved and expected to know what was going on,” Boras said. “Mentally, he prepared himself.”

Staying involved as much as he did made the 2020 season feel at least somewhat normal, or at least as normal as living through a global pandemic and dealing with a heart condition can feel.

“I can't say enough about coach,” Sweeney said of Boras. “He's been around this league for a long time. He's a great man on and off the field. He would quiz me every day and make me feel like I was still a part of it. Hard to do, especially when the team is traveling and you're not traveling, so I can't say enough about him and staying with me through that whole thing.”

Without any family in Buffalo, Sweeney has spent Christmas dinner with Boras and his family the past two seasons. As such, it was an emotional time when Boras learned Sweeney would miss all of last season.

"Those are hard discussions. I think any time as a coach, and I'm a father, you try to put yourself in his shoes, and it's hard. I couldn't imagine somebody taking away the thing that I loved the most,” he said. “You try to be there like we are as parents. It's no different than any walk of life. You just want to be there and listen and offer an encouraging word and make sure that he knows that there is light at the end of the tunnel. He's got to believe in the science and believe in the doctors and focus on what he can control.

“I know those are clichés, but clichés exist because there is truth to them. So focus on what he could control, and once he did that, it kind of puts the other stuff behind you. Don't get angry about it, but how are we going to come out the other side better?”

In the spring, that wasn’t easy. A year away from football was evident. Sweeney had trouble “getting his legs underneath him,” as Boras put it, and it was clear his conditioning had suffered. He worked hard on that between the spring and the start of training camp, however, and was rounding into form by the time the preseason opener arrived against Detroit on Aug. 13. Sweeney had two catches for 34 yards in that game, but had to leave early when he suffered a foot injury.

“Especially because it was the same foot that I hurt, that I got surgery on right before I got Covid last year, that was a big, ‘You've got to be kidding me’ moment,” Sweeney said. “I mean, it wasn't awful – it's fine now – but it was frustrating, yeah. … The last thing I learned from Covid is you can't really control it, you've just got to make it fuel for the fire and get back.”

The injury was bad enough to keep Sweeney out of the last two preseason games. For a player coming off a missed 2020 season who was battling for a reserve role, there was at least some question as to whether his roster spot would be safe.

In the end, it was, as the Bills went with just two true tight ends – Knox and Sweeney – on the 53-man roster. Doing so made it clear they were fully confident that Sweeney could step in, just like he’ll need to Sunday.

“He went through, I’d say his own set of adversities last year, and he’s a pretty consistent player, consistent person in how he approaches his job,” offensive coordinator Brian Daboll said. “He knows his role, and he goes out there in practice and he does his role, and when his number’s called, we expect him to be able to do that. And that’s a credit to him, that’s a credit to Rob. I think it’s the type of people we bring in here, that you’re going to have injuries throughout the year – that’s the NFL.”

“I'd use the word trust maybe more than faith. Because he's earned that trust his rookie year and ever since he's been here,” Boras said. “You know what you're going to get with him. It's never a guessing game. The trust that we have as coaches, and I would assume if you would ask Josh – I don't want to speak for Josh – but his teammates have trust in him, from what I see. That goes a long way.”

“It really meant a lot from them – that trust in me,” Sweeney said. “When the 53 came around and this season came around, they stuck with me. I really appreciate it.”

Sweeney was fully cleared for football activities in February. While he’s answered every question about what his experience last year was like, it’s also clear he’s more than ready to turn the page.

“Once it was over in February, I really just tried to leave it in the rearview mirror, not even think about it,” he said. “It's been good to kind of get back to normal, being a football player again. It's good to have it behind and kind of keep it there.”

Although it came in a loss, his first career touchdown was a moment the entire team celebrated.

“We all experienced Covid, but not Covid like Tommy did,” Boras said. “So to miss an entire season, I know everybody is excited for him. They were excited for him just when he got back out in training camp and was able to practice again. And now to make it to the regular season and have the opportunity to step in and play more, we're all excited for him. I can't put into words what he went through, but he's handled everything the right way. He's always been such a good teammate since he's gotten here.”

When the Bills throw: Stefon Diggs and Emmanuel Sanders have combined for 61 catches, without a drop between them. That’s a big reason why quarterback Josh Allen has gotten away with ranking just 25th in Sports Info Solution’s tracking of “catchable throws,” a statistic that is found by dividing the number of throws deemed catchable by a quarterback’s total pass attempts. Allen is at 83.1% in that metric. With tight end Dawson Knox out because of a hand injury, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Bills run more four-receiver sets, meaning Gabriel Davis could be a sleeper daily fantasy play. Miami is allowing 297.1 passing yards per game, which ranks 30th in the NFL. EDGE: Bills.

When the Bills run: Pop quiz: Without looking it up, where do the Bills rank in rushing yards? You’d probably be surprised to learn it’s sixth overall. Allen’s 214 yards on the ground certainly helps, but Devin Singletary ranks tied for sixth among running backs with an average of 5.2 yards per carry. Singletary burned the Dolphins for a 46-yard touchdown run in the Bills’ Week 2 win. EDGE: Bills.

When the Dolphins throw: Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa has played fairly well since returning from the broken ribs he suffered against the Bills in Week 2, thanks to a massive hit from A.J. Epenesa. Say it with me, though: Tagovailoa doesn’t have elite arm talent, which is a big reason why there is so much doubt about whether he’s truly the quarterback of the future for Miami. The Dolphins have one of the worst offensive lines in the league, which leads to them trying whatever they can to give Tagovailoa time to make plays. According to analytics website Pro Football Focus, only 49% of Tagovailoa’s dropbacks do not have a run-pass option, screen, rollout or play action attached to it – the highest percentage in the league. EDGE: Bills.

When the Dolphins run: In a word, yuck. Miami averages just 80.1 rushing yards per game, which ranks 31st in the NFL. The Dolphins don’t have a running back in the top 35 in the league in rushing yards, with Myles Gaskin’s team-leading 243 ranking 37th. In other words, the Dolphins won’t be nearly the challenge the Bills faced in Week 6 against Derrick Henry and the Titans. EDGE: Bills.

Special teams: The Dolphins traded primary return man Jakeem Grant to Chicago three weeks ago, meaning rookie Jaylen Waddle, the team’s first-round draft pick, has taken on a bigger role. Waddle averaged 19.3 yards and two touchdowns on 38 punt returns at Alabama. He averaged 23.8 yards with one touchdown on nine kickoff returns in college, but so far hasn’t had that kind of success at the next level, averaging 19.0 yards on two kick returns and making fair catches on three of his four punt returns. Wide receiver Mack Hollins leads Miami with four tackles on special teams. EDGE: Bills.

Coaching: Brian Flores is likely heading into his final couple months as Miami’s head coach. It’s hard to see how he survives what has so far been an epic failure of a season for the Dolphins. Surely, Bills fans won’t shed many tears over that. Flores’ decision to have co-offensive coordinators this season was doomed from the start, and his stubborn refusal to switch out of man-to-man defense, even when it’s clear it’s not working, has been a source of frustration for Miami fans. EDGE: Bills.

Prediction: Bills 31, Dolphins 17

Welcome to a Halloween edition of the Bills Mailbag. Let’s reach into our bag of treats to see what you all came up with this week …

Paul Basinski asks: What's up with all these field goals in the red zone? Very different from a season ago. Sure, the Bills are still putting up plenty of points, but something feels less explosive about the offense this year inside the 20. Is this a reason for concern, and what's the probable cause?

Jay: There isn’t one specific thing that’s gone wrong in the red zone, or if there is, the Bills aren’t saying what it is. Players and coaches have given the standard “we have to execute better” line to explain the struggles, although Stefon Diggs shed some light on it when asked Wednesday why the team hasn’t been able to reach the end zone more consistently: “Things do get tighter down there and with things being tighter, routes got to be crisper, throws got to be tighter – there’s going to be smaller windows. You’ve got to work as a unit. At the end of the (Tennessee) game, I feel like we didn’t help ourselves. We could have done some things differently, especially at the wideout position.”

Diggs is right. The Bills need to be crisper in their execution inside the 20-yard line. The decisive play against Tennessee is a perfect example. Quarterback Josh Allen gets that first down the vast majority of the time in that situation, but on this occasion, he didn’t, partially because he lost his footing and partially because left tackle Dion Dawkins didn’t get enough of Titans lineman Jeffery Simmons.

As it stands, the Bills rank 26th in red-zone touchdown percentage heading into Week 8, converting just 55.17% of the time. Absolutely it’s a cause for concern and an area you can bet coach Sean McDermott spent a good amount of time self-scouting during the bye week.

Ed Helinski asks: In honor of Halloween, what scares you the most about the Bills and their game performances so far this season? Or, might frightening things be coming later in the schedule and season?

Jay: Bonus points, Ed, for working Halloween into your question. As a reward, I’ll give you two answers – one for offense and one for defense. Paul’s question above references my biggest concern offensively. The inability at times to finish drives with touchdowns has cost the Bills before – the wild-card playoff loss to Houston after the 2019 season is a great example. This year, it’s a big reason why the team lost to Tennessee. A 6-0 Bills lead after the first quarter probably should have been 14-0. If it was, perhaps the Titans aren’t able to rely on stud running back Derrick Henry as much as they did.

Defensively, the loss to Tennessee exposed a potential flaw – an inability to stop the run. Granted, there is only one Derrick Henry on the schedule, but the Bills’ defense didn’t have an answer for Tennessee’s physical style. Expect teams to try and copy that blueprint until the Bills prove they can stop it.

Doug Pagano asks: The trade deadline is coming up soon. What areas of the team do you think General Manager Brandon Beane might address? Seems to me we have an excess of defensive linemen and a shortage at tight end.

Paul Catalano asks: Reports are teams are interested in some of our guys up front on the defensive line – Mario Addison and Jerry Hughes. Do you see the Bills making a move? And what gets brought back in return? A pick?

LDSports asks: Do you foresee the Bills making a few moves prior to the trade deadline? Brandon Beane always seems to be active!

Buffalo Storm Chaser asks: Any trade targets you’d like to see made before the deadline (position or players)?

John Jarzynski asks: What would it take for the Bills to trade a defensive end on an expiring contract?

Jay: Let’s group all the trade-deadline questions together. Here’s why I would consider it unlikely the Bills trade a player off their current roster: This is a team with Super Bowl aspirations. Unless it’s a player-for-player swap, what’s the benefit of trading Addison or Hughes – as Paul mentions – for a 2022 draft pick? That does nothing to help the Bills chase a championship. Any move that Beane makes has to be made with that in mind.

The lone exception to that might be offensive guard Cody Ford, who has very clearly fallen out of favor. If a team makes a worthwhile offer for Ford, it might make sense for the Bills to cut their losses instead of keeping him on the bench. To a lesser degree, the same might be true for defensive tackle Vernon Butler Jr., a former first-round draft pick of Carolina who has been a healthy inactive the past three games.

As for positional targets, tight end has been mentioned with Dawson Knox out, but his absence may not be all that long. With that being the case, a move for a tight end isn’t a necessity.

No. 2 cornerback has also been mentioned as an area the Bills may want to strengthen. That’s logical, but it’s important to remember the Bills have just a shade over $4 million in salary cap space available. While it would be great if the Dolphins left Xavien Howard in Western New York after Sunday’s game, the Bills would have to make a corresponding move to fit him under the salary cap. One way the Bills could do that would be to ship out a current contract, which John mentions as a possibility, but that’s a lot of moving parts considering the NFL trade deadline is generally a snooze fest.

Beane’s only true deadline move in four years on the job was acquiring wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin from the Carolina Panthers in 2017.

bk asks: Why was A.J. Epenesa inactive against the Titans? Hasn't he earned the chance to be active every game?

Jay: The snap counts showed that Epenesa was trending toward being a healthy inactive. Against Kansas City in Week 5, he played just 34% of the snaps. Epenesa had a great game against the Dolphins Week 2, but quite frankly, hasn’t done much since. According to analytics website Pro Football Focus, he had eight quarterback pressures against the Dolphins … and just four combined in the three games that followed. One good game against Miami is not enough to guarantee a spot in the lineup for the rest of the season, especially when considering how deep the Bills are along the defensive line. The question now becomes how Epenesa responds to being a healthy inactive. Defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier was asked about that Thursday. Here was his response: "He did a great job in practice just being able to handle the news that he was going to be down. And it's not not easy having those conversations with players, especially when they have played well, like he played in our first Miami game,” Frazier said. “Really played well. He played well in our opening game as well, but he handled it extremely well and his opportunity's going to come. He'll be back out there again and eventually get back to playing those same number of snaps that he was playing before.”

Joe C. asks: Why can't the NFL conduct overtime like the college games? Is the NFL too bullheaded for this idea? For a billion-dollar industry to decide the game on the flip of a coin seems crazy to me. Wait until the playoffs and Super Bowl are played! Hopefully, the Bills don't get shafted by the stupid decisions of the NFL. Your thoughts?

Jay: Respectfully, Joe, I disagree. I don’t like college overtime. The NFL version is superior to me. The game isn’t decided by the flip of a coin. Yes, the team that wins the coin flip has a chance to win, but to do so, it has to score a touchdown. That means the defense has a chance to stop them. You could make the case that both teams should have a chance to possess the ball in overtime, which the league made a move toward when it changed the rule and made it a requirement for the team receiving the ball first in overtime to score a touchdown to win – meaning a field goal isn’t enough. The current overtime structure works well, in my opinion.

Tom Graham asks: General Manager Brandon Beane, coach Sean McDermott and defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier have said NFL games are won at the line of scrimmage. The Bills are focusing on the offensive line and defensive line when drafting and acquiring players. I agree 100% with them. Do you agree with their player acquisition strategy? The championship teams in the 1960s had Tom Sestak (DT) and Billy Shaw (OG). The Bills’ Super Bowl teams of the 1990s had Bruce Smith (DE) and Kent Hull (C).

Jay: My colleague Mark Gaughan, who knows as much football as anyone I know, always says when in doubt, draft big guys. Under Beane, the Bills have done that, especially in the first two rounds. Over the last three drafts, the Bills have selected defensive ends Greg Rousseau, Boogie Basham and A.J. Epenesa, defensive tackle Ed Oliver and offensive lineman Cody Ford in the first two rounds. In the case of Ford, that pick isn’t looking too good. The jury is still out to some degree on all the others, although Rousseau and Oliver are starters and Basham and Epenesa have participated in the defensive line rotation. Overall, it’s hard to disagree with most of Beane’s roster constructions.

Karen Colville asks: Do the Bills actually meet and practice or is the bye a vacation week?

Jay: It’s a true vacation week. McDermott encourages his players to get away as much as they can. “You got to get the mind off football for a few days, but it's a job that never stops,” Allen said.

Keith Pascucci asks: There is something about the punter I just don’t like. He sure seems slow to get the ball off. What do you think?

Jay: Of all the advanced stats now available, none of them I’ve seen track time of punt from the time of snap (someone get on that). With that being the case, we have to go off the eyeball test, and you’re right, Keith, it does seem like it takes Matt Haack a good amount of time to get off his punts. Undoubtedly, that perception is fueled partly because of the punt he had blocked against Pittsburgh. It’s worth pointing out that he’s gotten off every punt cleanly since, but each time he’s back, it feels like fans are holding their collective breath.

Buffalofan asks: Will the Bills possibly shut out the Dolphins a second time in a season?

Jay: I won’t predict it, only because shutouts are so rare. Miami also should have its starting quarterback available for longer than the two series Tua Tagovailoa managed in Week 2. Given the smackdown they suffered in the first meeting, you have to expect the Dolphins will come out determined to have a better showing this time against the Bills. They’ll likely do that, which result in some points being scored … but not nearly enough to win the game.

Sarah asks: We're not quite halfway, but which Bills player do you think will break out in the second half of the season? I'm curious if Brian Daboll will experiment with Mitch Trubisky at all with any trick plays … or save something for Tampa Bay or playoffs?

Jay: Oliver. The third-year defensive tackle has been solid thus far, with three tackles for loss and two quarterback hits, but has yet to record a sack. There is good reason to believe those are coming. As for using Trubisky, the question to ask is, what does he do better than Allen? He’s not as strong or fast, so it’s hard to see why the Bills would use him over their starter. The line of thinking about saving something for the postseason is a good one, though. If you go back to the wild-card game against Houston after the 2019 season, Allen caught a touchdown pass from wide receiver John Brown on the Bills’ first drive. That certainly felt like a play the offense was keeping under wraps until the playoffs. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Daboll dial up something like that again at that time.

Luigi Mike Speranza asks: The Titans seem to have our number lately. Do you think they will be our nemesis keeping us from advancing in the playoffs and the Super Bowl going forward?

Jay: The possibility can’t be ruled out, although I still think the Bills should be considered the favorite for the No. 1 seed in the AFC and home-field advantage throughout the postseason. Sure, Tennessee has beaten Buffalo in back-to-back years, but both of those games were in Nashville. The Titans have a road loss to the Jets, of all teams, this season. The Monday night game had a lot of fans riled up, but it didn’t change my outlook for the rest of the season. The Bills moved the ball fine on offense. If they can clean up their performance in the red zone, I like their chances against any team, the Titans included.

Matt Leach asks: Pizza or tacos?

Jay: This one’s easy – pizza. Matt could have made it more challenging by roping in burritos, fajitas and quesadillas with tacos, but he didn’t do that. If I still get to choose from all of them, I’m more than happy to say adios to tacos and keep pizza.

As always, thank you for the questions, which can be submitted via email to jskurski@buffnews.com or via Twitter, @JaySkurski. Happy Halloween!

Ike Boettger took a different path to leave practice Friday. Instead of the gradual sloped ramp out of Highmark Stadium, the left guard took the higher-effort route up the stadium stairs.

“We had to mix it up after the loss. Gotta change the juju,” he said.

It’s not a strict superstition, though.

“Oh, I guess? Just want to try something new,” he said.

The fourth-year guard saw his most action this season against the Houston Texans, starting in place of Jon Feliciano. Boettger entered the league with the Bills as a rookie undrafted free agent in 2018, and spent a brief amount of time in Kansas City before coming back to Buffalo. He played 12 games last season and started seven, both career highs. He started all three playoff games for the Bills as well. 

Outside of gamedays, he shares anything he can with the rookie offensive linemen. There's a geographic connection with some, and the Iowa native never forgets his roots.

Buffalo News: Your first job was working on a farm. What was that like?

IB: I just grew up on acreage, and both my grandfathers are farmers. My neighbor was a big farmer, so just helping him in the summer and when I wasn’t in sports always. I’d just stay in shape, and it was always fun work.

BN: That’s a lot of physical work, too. What were your favorite and least favorite parts?

IB: I’d say my least favorite was baling hay. Hot, middle of summer, itchy. But my favorite? Just anything with animals was fun. Cows, sheep, pigs – we had a bunch of pigs growing up, so just working with them. And I had a lot of good memories with my dad, just doing stuff on our acreage. … One of my grandfathers lives four hours away, and the other, two hours, so both pretty close.

BN: You were on the Leadership Group for Iowa football. (Boettger was part of the group in 2016 as a junior and in 2017 as a senior.) Are there takeaways from that you can apply here?

IB: Just trying to help younger guys is something that I think is very important, and was instilled in me at the University of Iowa. And I think it’s huge in the NFL. A guy like Spencer Brown, Tommy Doyle – great young guys, both Midwest guys. And Spencer, I knew before he even got drafted here. So it’s been fun, just trying to help them with anything they need, and I think that makes huge difference when you’re a young guy in the NFL.

BN: You’re in that in between, though, of not too old in the NFL, but still old enough to mentor others. How’s that going?

IB: Yeah, it’s fun. It’s a fun opportunity to help those guys and try to get them whatever they need, and then just try to focus on getting better myself every day, and being the best player I can be.

BN: What’s it like to have so many Iowa connections on the team?

IB: I think Buffalo is very similar to a Midwest town, and the feel that I get in Buffalo is very much the same as Iowa, and I think it’s hard not to like the corn-fed connection, I guess.

Safety Jordan Poyer was sitting on the beach, but still thinking about football. Quarterback Josh Allen said he’d prefer to play every week. After the loss in Tennessee, the Buffalo Bills were ready to get right back to work. The only thing stopping them was their bye week.

If the bitter loss lingered, history says there’s something more palatable up next. Sean McDermott is 4-0 coming out the bye as head coach of the Bills.

There’s a few contributing factors: McDermott’s approach to making sure the team truly recharges, the Bills’ locker room upholding that value, and the way the schedule’s worked out among them.

McDermott has said in previous years that he soaked in some of Andy Reid’s methods around the bye week, something offensive coordinator Brian Daboll alluded to Thursday. Reid has an 18-3 record after the bye week as a head coach.

“I think it's a formula that he's (McDermott’s) been around in his past, and obviously something I've taken note of because you do come back reenergized, you do come back with a fresh outlook and you do come back ready to work,” Daboll said.

The theme of giving players and coaches some true time away is constant. But other exact bye-week tendencies vary based off the year. Daboll says that’s a strength of McDermott’s.

“I just think he's got a good pulse of the team. He’s a very good organizer,” Daboll said. “He's well thought out. He plans things accordingly based on what our team needs. And he’s just got a good beat on the guys and he's been really good in that aspect. (I’ve) learned a lot from him in regards to taking care of your body, getting rest.”

From there, it then flows through to the players. A number of Bills pointed out this week that there was no problem keeping guys focused over the break.

“I think we're a mature team,” Poyer said. “I think guys handled the bye week the way they're supposed to, resting and recharging, self-scouting and self-reflecting.”

Five years in, McDermott has the team running in a way that he doesn’t necessarily have to remind players of the task at hand. Even in just two years with the team, wide receiver Stefon Diggs has seen that culture seep into the players.

“He's not gonna be a ‘rah-rah’ guy,” Diggs said Wednesday on McDermott. “He's straightforward. He's a straight shooter. He likes his team to be workers. I feel like he's put together the right kind of team of guys that go out there and he can kind of like, I'm not saying just give the reins to, but he can trust his guys. He can trust the guys that he made captains, and even the guys who aren't captains, all leaders on this team.

“Everybody’s gonna have the right mindset and he can kind of be like this, I can trust my guys to lead the way do what we need to lead or practice the way we need to practice and hold everybody to the standard. If it's not, we will hold everybody accountable.”

Players and coaches don’t need much to stay accountable this year. That extra layer of wanting to get back on the field after defeat has them ready. Starting right after the Monday night loss to the Titans, the Bills were quick to draw parallels to their loss in Arizona last season. Allen noted it again this week.

“This is a position that feels eerily similar to the bye week last year: losing the way we did, everybody wanted to count us out again and all that,” Allen said Wednesday. “But we don't really care about that. We're a resilient group.”

Poyer felt the same hunger, too. The Bills rattled off eight straight wins after the bye last year, the Arizona loss as partial fuel. The earlier bye week and the added 17th game make that an unlikely streak to replicate this year, but their next stretch of schedule allows ample opportunity to stack some wins. After the Dolphins this Sunday, they face the Jaguars and the Jets.

In three of the last four years, the team the Bills beat off the bye went on to finish 5-11. The outlier, the 2020 Chargers, finished 7-9. The 1-6 Dolphins are reeling, but the divisional matchup means McDermott and his players won’t overlook them.

“It's a really good football team with talent starting with the quarterback all the way through their entire roster,” McDermott said Wednesday. “I mean, look at the number of first-round picks they have on their football team, high picks. So I think you just start there and then you watch the games that they've played, especially the last two, I mean, they're right there.”

McDermott surely spent plenty of time watching those games. But he tried to get away, even just mentally, for a bit, too. The bye week is for everyone to recharge, after all.

“As you know, there's long hours,” Daboll said. “In our business, we like that, but I think getting rest and downtime – particularly how today's world's going with mental health issues and things like that – I think that helps everybody. And that's a credit to Sean to me, and his leadership and how he approaches it.”

Injury report

Bills offensive lineman Spencer Brown (back), tight end Dawson Knox (hand) and defensive end Boogie Basham (illness) did not practice Thursday. Wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders had a veteran's rest day. Defensive tackle Justin Zimmer (foot) was limited. 

For the Dolphins, the following players were limited Thursday: linebacker Jerome Baker (knee), cornerback Xavien Howard (shoulder/groin), cornerback Noah Igbinoghene (knee/ankle), safety Brandon Jones (ankle), cornerback Byron Jones (Achilles/groin), center Greg Mancz (groin) and wide receiver DeVante Parker (shoulder/hamstring). 

Cody White doesn’t usually get to watch a ton of NFL football. The athletic director and football coach at Brentwood Academy in Tennessee, his Sundays usually are reserved for planning for his own team. He tries to catch college games on Saturdays: There are more than 30 Brentwood alumni playing at the next level.

But last week, a Monday night game gave him a rare opportunity to watch Brentwood alum Dawson Knox. He even got to see Knox, now a tight end for the Buffalo Bills, complete a pass on a trick play two-point conversion, with quarterback Josh Allen as his receiver. And after coaching Knox, watching him develop and grow, White was a little aghast. 

“I was like, ‘Good gosh, that’s bad,’ “ White said, his Tennessee drawl extending each insult. “It was an awful mechanical throw.”

He soon learned some important context for the toss: Knox had broken his hand earlier in the game, but pled his case to stay in just a little longer. The completion put the Bills up by seven, though they would eventually lose 34-31, with Knox leaving the game.

Completing the pass in Tennessee was a bit full circle for Knox. Not only did he play quarterback in high school, but he drew on another past experience for the play.

“Never thought throwing shot put in high school would help me in the league but here we are,” Knox tweeted a few days after the play.

His shot put days came in part from an ankle injury while playing football. Otherwise, he would have been running. Floyd Elliott was an assistant throwing coach at the time, and also taught Knox in Honors Algebra II. He saw an opportunity to get Knox involved.

“We saw how explosive Dawson was – we’ll call it a quick twitch,” Elliott said. “And we thought, ‘Heck, let’s get him out and see if he can do some shot put.’ And he had relatively good success considering he didn’t have much experience at it.”

Though he was joining around six or eight guys who had been throwing the shot put for a couple of years, Knox out performed about half the group on his early attempts.

“He was already at the middle of the pack on his first throw,” Elliott said. “And so that's why we thought, 'He has a chance to help us.' ”

White recalls Knox doing well at regionals, but his real love was always football. And without practice, his coaches both joke that his precision has dropped a bit. 

“Well, let's just say he's diminished on his quarterbacking skills since he's moved to tight end,” Elliott said, laughing.

And as for his shot put?

“Form needs to be revisited there as well,” Elliott said.

Elliott gives the technical breakdown: A good shot put throw starts under the chin or neck, while Knox’s heave came from the side of his body. It relies on a straight arm propelling the dense ball, and needs more power from one’s legs, he explains.

“I’m not sure his was true shot put form, but close enough,” Elliott said.

Still, it was a joke that Knox made outside of Twitter, too.

“He called, and he said, ‘Yeah, I shot-putted that thing,’ “ White said. “I was making fun of him throwing, I was like, ‘That's embarrassing. I worked with you as a quarterback, and that throw was awful.’ Of course, his hand was broken, I was just messing with him.”

The absolute dragging of Knox’s throw by both coaches comes from a place of real endearment. They’ve been thrilled to see how Knox has done in the league, especially after an unusual way of getting there. Ahead of the injury, which likely will sideline him for a few more weeks, Knox was having a breakout year with 286 yards on 21 catches and five touchdowns in six games. The third-year tight end had five touchdowns total his first two seasons in the league. White sees those stats and the two-point conversion itself as testaments to Knox's hypercompetitive drive. 

“He wasn't going to come out, because they called the heavy package, and he's in that, because it's all the tight ends and (they) didn’t have enough,” White said. “He's just one of those kinds of kids, where he's a winner and it's not surprising.”

White has seen Knox’s determination to stay on the field for years. After a brutal injury in high school, he went to Ole Miss as a walk-on, where he made the transition to tight end. He's comfortable proving that he should be on the field, even when injured. 

“I was trying to call the play off,” Allen said after the game. “I was shaking my hands at Dabes (offensive coordinator Brian Daboll) like, ‘Don’t call it, we can’t do it.’ And (Knox) looked at me and said, ‘I got it. I’ll get it to ya.’

“So to put your body on the line like that and grit through it, that was a big time play and that’s awesome when a teammate is willing to do that, and that’s why we love him.”

The Knox-to-Allen connection was something that the Bills practiced on Day 1 of training camp. The two teammates are close, celebrating earlier this season with a prom pose. But even with great chemistry and a spicy play call, there's always some risk. 

“Those are always fun when they work, but you look like an idiot when you're a coach and they don’t,” White said. “But it worked out pretty well. It's either really good, or you look really, really bad. So they had done a good job signing it and I'm sure they know what kind of coverage they're gonna get anyway, and I won't ever counsel the quarterback as a general rule.”

Sure enough, Allen was quite open. Knox just had to put it to him. 

But wrapped in all the questionable mechanics, a deeper truth emerged to Elliott. Even if Knox’s throw wasn’t perfect shot put form, and even if the tweet was partially a joke, former coaches could see their influence on the player and person Knox is today. 

“Oh, it's very gratifying,” Elliott said. “It just sums up what some kids, how they understand that a lot of different people pour into them in their lives when they're growing up. And for them to remember something like that, it’s just gratifying. Whether it's serious or in jest, it was a part of their life, and they appreciated it. And it makes us appreciate it as well.”

Knox’s parents, David and Rachel, are both Brentwood alumni, as are a number of extended family members, White noted. 

“They’re really ingrained in the Brentwood Academy community,” White said.

So it’s no surprise that Knox maintains those relationships. He spent part of the bye week in Tennessee, having surgery on his hand. He catches up with old coaches when he can. He’ll grab lunch with White, though with one condition.

“I was making fun of him because I still have to switch – every other lunch, I have to buy, which makes me laugh, because he makes a lot more money than I do,” White said. “He's a tightwad.”

It seems to be a situational approach to budgeting: Knox is doing a seasonlong campaign in which he donates to the P.U.N.T. Pediatric Cancer Collaborative. Similar to the two-point conversion, it's no surprise for those who have watched him grow up. 

“He has a big heart, that's all I can say,” Elliott said. “He would do anything for a friend, or probably even a stranger, if he could, if he had the time and the ability. He’s just a big-hearted guy, and I know he just loves what he does.”

The Buffalo Bills are tied for the NFL lead in takeaways with 16 through seven weeks of the season.

Is it sustainable?

It may not be realistic to stay at the top of the league all season, but the defense built by Sean McDermott and Leslie Frazier has an impressive, long track record of creating turnovers.

Buffalo leads the NFL since the start of the 2017 campaign with 117 takeaways.

The Bills have been consistent year to year, too. They ranked tied for 10th in takeaways in both 2020 and 2019. They were tied for eighth in 2018 and tied for ninth in 2017.

Here’s the list of the top 10 teams in takeaways since the start of 2017:

1. Buffalo, 117. 2. Los Angeles Rams, 116. 3. New England, 115. 4. Seattle, 112. 5. Tampa Bay, 110. 5. Indianapolis, 110. 7. New Orleans, 108. 8. Pittsburgh, 107. 9. Baltimore, 105. 9. Kansas City, 105.

Notice a trend? Good teams.

Every coaching staff talks about creating turnovers. Every team drills it. Every team talks about how the second man in on a gang tackle should go after the ball. Good teams with good players that play with a lead more often get more turnovers.

Nevertheless, a fanatical emphasis on creating turnovers is an important part of the equation.

“Just every day, just emphasizing it,” safety Jordan Poyer said. “Every day, from the meetings, from the practice, just continuing of emphasizing and putting it in our heads, 'Get the ball.' ”

Poyer described a ball attached to a flexible door stop in one of the Bills’ meeting rooms.

“And it's, like, little habits in some of the meeting rooms,” he said. “There's a ball on the wall with kind of like, I don't know one of those, you know those little doorknob things, which you hit. So it's just mental habits. It's building the mental habits, and that really carries over to the game. Guys punching at the ball, guys stripping at the ball. So it's just a lot of habits that we've created through our time here.”

When the Bills reconvened Monday after their bye week, Frazier showed his defenders a list of the NFL takeaway leaders showing the Bills tied for the top. He had a message for his players:

“It’s not enough!”

With that in mind, the players continue to try to hone their skills.

Tre’Davious White, Tremaine Edmunds and Rashad Wildgoose were the last three defensive players off the practice field Thursday after getting in some extra work trying to catch “tough” balls fired at them from a Juggs machine.

The Bills have benefitted from playing young quarterbacks. They won the turnover battle 3-0 and 5-1, respectively, against Washington and Houston. They also got two interceptions off Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes. Buffalo has a three more inexperienced QBs coming up against the Dolphins, Jaguars and Jets.

The 30,000-foot view. The Bills have won six straight against Miami. A win Sunday would give the Bills their longest win streak in the series. Buffalo has won 13 of the last 17 vs. Miami dating to the 2013 season. Miami still leads the series 61-53-1, due to the 0-for-the-70s streak, but this is the closest to even in the series the Bills have been since 1974. The Bills were 18-4 vs. Miami during the bulk of the Jim Kelly era. That’s amazing, considering Miami had both Don Shula and Dan Marino that entire time. It’s one of the most impressive accomplishments of the Super Bowl era Bills.

Mano a mano? The Dolphins prefer to play man coverage. They played man to man 43% last season, third most in the NFL, according to Football Outsiders. They blitzed the heck out of Allen in the regular-season finale in Buffalo and it didn’t go well. Allen shredded them en route to a 28-6 halftime lead.

In the Week 2 game in Miami six weeks ago, the Dolphins didn’t man up as much early. They blitzed on only three of Allen’s first 24 dropbacks through the first drive of the third quarter. At that point, the Bills led 21-0. Then, they started calling more blitzes. Cornerbacks Xavien Howard and Byron Jones have been dealing with minor soft-tissue ailments. We’ll see if coach Brian Flores sticks with his attacking personality.

Stefon Diggs was expecting plenty of man coverage.

“It’s going to be a man-to-man game,” he said. “I watched the game from the second game of the season, and they’re definitely a man-to-man team. They play single high and they play bump and run. It’s definitely going to be a challenge for us. They’re some of the best corners and some of the most athletic. Speed. Strong. It’s definitely going to be a test for us and something I look forward to. ... You get to play them twice, so you get another opportunity to play guys. I feel like, offensively, we didn’t play our best ball and we get another opportunity to go out there this weekend.”

“They get up in your face, and they press, and that’s what they do, and that’s what they stick to,” Emmanuel Sanders said. “I was watching film earlier this morning and I was like, let me get my body right to battle. Every time somebody’s in your face for four quarters of football, that’s when fatigue can happen.”

More 10 personnel? With tight end Dawson Knox producing so well, the Bills have used their four-wide receiver package (10 personnel) only 7% of their plays the past five weeks. Last year, the Bills ran four wideouts or five wideouts on 14.5% of their snaps. Watch to see if Gabriel Davis gets more snaps with Knox out due to a broken hand. The Bills haven’t shown Miami much two-back offense, unless they’ve been in the red zone. Knox has been effective out of the slot. He leads NFL tight ends in yards per target (14.5) and yards per reception (20) from the slot, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. We’ll see if the coaches think Tommy Sweeney can be effective flexed out, something we haven’t seen him do much.

Stats for the road. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, the Bills’ win probability was 63% when they went for it on fourth down at the end of the Titans’ game. It was 42% if they kicked the field goal. ... Miami has allowed an NFL-worst 37 passes of 20-plus yards. The Bills’ defense has allowed only nine, fewest in the league. ... Dolphins tight end Mike Gesicki had only three catches in the first meeting, but he’s more involved now. He has had 34 catches the last five games.

Josh Allen stands 6-foot-5 and 237 pounds.

You have to believe he seems like 10 feet tall to Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross.

Allen has led the Buffalo Bills to six consecutive victories over Miami, and he has been spectacular in every one.

The specter of Allen looms over the Dolphins this week as they contemplate a franchise-altering decision: Do they mortgage a big chunk of their future in a trade for Deshaun Watson?

If it wasn’t the Dolphins, you’d have sympathy for their conundrum.

They could stick with Tua Tagovailoa and use their draft resources and cap space to keep building around him.

By most young QB standards, Tagovailoa has started off OK, especially considering he came back from major hip surgery as a rookie. Through 13 NFL starts entering Sunday’s game in Orchard Park, Tagovailoa has the same record as Allen had (7-6). Tagovailoa has more passing yards and more TD passes than Allen through 13 starts.

The 6-foot, 217-pound Tagovailoa, however, never is going to be as big as Allen. His arm never is going to be as strong. He’s not as athletic as Allen. That doesn’t mean Tua can’t be a winning QB, but he seems destined to always suffer in comparison to the Bills’ QB. You know it. Ross knows it.

Watson is a special athlete in Allen’s class. Once in awhile in big games, you need your quarterback to be The Difference, the reason you win. Allen is that guy. Watson is that guy. Is Tua that guy? Miami, obviously, has big doubts or it wouldn’t be engaged in talks with the Texans ahead of Tuesday’s trade deadline.

The price for acquiring Watson, according to all reports, is three first-round picks, plus a couple other picks, second-rounders if Houston can get them.

Miami owns San Francisco’s first-round pick in 2022 and then has two first-round picks in 2023.

The expectation is Watson will face some kind of NFL suspension (six games?), maybe in 2022, over the 20-plus civil lawsuits that have been filed against him for sexual assault and inappropriate conduct. Dallas’ Ezekiel Elliott got a six-game suspension in 2017 for domestic violence allegations, even though he never was charged of a crime.

Should the Dolphins pull the trigger now, or wait until the next trade window in March when Watson’s legal situation might be clearer?

Several longtime NFL executives favor a wait-and-see approach.

Said former Packers executive and ESPN analyst Andrew Brandt: “I cannot believe an NFL owner, in this current climate especially, would bring in Deshaun Watson and face his fan base with the lawsuits circling that player. No matter how "good" a trade deal they could get.”

Said former Eagles executive Joe Banner on the website the 33rd Team: “I think the risk, for me, is just too great right now to trade numerous high picks – even conditional ones – for that situation.”

If the Dolphins ultimately give up all those draft picks, then they will have a roster mostly bereft of homegrown draft talent for the next several years. Check out some Miami fan webpages and you read a lot of this kind of logic: We might as well unload all these draft picks because we have no confidence we can turn them into star players anyway.

Miami fans already are lamenting their three No. 1 picks from 2020. Tua was taken No. 5 overall, and the next pick was the Chargers’ Justin Herbert, who already looks like a superstar. Austin Jackson was taken 18th, and he already has been “demoted” from tackle to guard. Cornerback Noah Igbinoghene was taken 30th, and he’s riding the bench.

Miami’s 2021 draft already is open to question. The Dolphins traded out of the No. 3 spot, allowing stud tight end Kyle Pitts to go to Atlanta at No. 4 and stud receiver Ja’Marr Chase go to the Bengals at No. 5. Pitts dominated the Dolphins last Sunday. Miami moved back up from No. 12 to No. 6 to get wideout Jaylen Waddle. He looks very good, but maybe not as good as Pitts and Chase.

Miami was hedging its bets. Its maneuvers landed the extra pick in 2023, which it may need to make the blockbuster Watson deal.

Miami currently has an NFL-high $79 million in cap space for next year, according to Spotrac.com. But adding Watson would drop it down to $44 million. The current Miami regime has a sketchy track record of free-agent signings, as well.

The best thing the Dolphins could do at this point is delay the decision. Wait until March. See if the current regime deserves the chance to stick around.

The pressure is on Ross. Watson is better than Tagovailoa. But either choice is fraught with risk as the Dolphins continue to stare way up at Allen. Their season is smoldering. The Bills can add another tire onto the Miami fire on Sunday.

The Miami Dolphins’ once-great third-down defense has collapsed this season, and that looks like bad news heading into Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills.

Miami had the No. 1-ranked third-down defense in the NFL last season, holding foes to just a 31% conversion rate. Through seven games this season, both the coverage and the pass rush are struggling for Miami. It is 31st on third downs, allowing 51.5% conversions.

Buffalo has been outstanding on third downs for the past two years. Last year, the Bills were No. 1 in the NFL at 49.73%, the best rate in the league in the past nine years. This year, they’re No. 2, converting 50% into first downs.

“Communication, overall execution,” Miami coach Brian Flores said when asked the big problem for his defense. “I would start with communication. ... It’s definitely something we need to improve on. That down is a big down from a momentum standpoint, getting off the field, getting the offense back on the field.”

The inability to get off the field is especially troubling considering Miami has the No. 1 cornerback payroll in the NFL, with $38.5 million in salary cap space devoted to the position.

The presence of top-paid corners Xavien Howard and Byron Jones has not prevented Miami from giving up a league-worst 37 pass plays of 20 or more yards.

Last year, Miami’s defensive backs got a lot of help from the pass rush. Miami ranked ninth in sacks per pass attempt faced.

This year, Miami ranks 29th in sacks, with just 12 through seven games.

“Last year was last year,” Flores said. “This is a totally different situation, a totally different year, opponents. We’ve got to improve in that area for sure.”

In general, Miami got more sacks last year from “manufactured pressure” – stunts, twists, zone dogs and blitzes – than from one-on-one edge rushing. The sack leaders last year were Emmanuel Ogbah (9), Jerome Baker (7), Kyle Van Noy (6), Andrew Van Ginkel (5.5) and Shaq Lawson (4).

Van Noy and Lawson are gone. Ogbah is the best edge rusher, but he has 2.5 sacks so far. Baker has just 1.0 and Van Ginkel 0.5.

Another factor the Dolphins’ defense has found hard to replicate from last year is takeaways.

Miami was No. 1 in the league last year in both overall takeaways (29) and interceptions (18). This year, Miami has just three interceptions, tied for 25th.

Miami’s defensive backfield this week lost veteran safety Jason McCourty to a foot injury. He went on injured reserve. His playing time had slipped the past several weeks.

The Dolphins have gone with rookie second-round draft pick Jevon Holland at free safety. Young Brandon Jones, a third-round pick in 2020, has taken over as the primary strong safety the past three weeks. Another top draftee in the secondary has been a healthy scratch most of the season. Cornerback Noah Igbinoghene, a first round pick in 2020, has played in only one game.

Here is how News Bills writers see Sunday's game against the Miami Dolphins at Highmark Stadium. The Bills are favored by 13.5 points. 

Jay Skurski

The Bills have won six straight games and eight of their last nine against Miami, but not all of them have been blowouts like the 35-0 victory in Week 2. It’s a tired cliché, but there’s some truth to the idea that it’s not easy to beat a team twice, especially when that team is desperate, like the Dolphins will be Sunday. That loss in Week 2 started a current six-game losing streak that has everything in Miami – the status of coach Brian Flores and General Manager Chris Grier, as well as the future of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa – to be in question.

Predicting another 35-0 win might be a stretch, but the Bills should have very little trouble extending Miami’s misery. Buffalo will be eager to erase the disappointment of the loss to Tennessee in Week 6, and the best way to do that will be a solid all-around effort against Miami. Rested and mostly recovered after the bye week, the Bills will continue their march to a second straight AFC East championship with their seventh straight win over the Fins. Bills 31, Dolphins 17.

Katherine Fitzgerald

The Bills are rested and ready to get back on the field after the loss in Tennessee. The Dolphins are not particularly formidable these days. Still, they should be in slightly better shape than in the Week 2 blowout. The bar after that 35-0 game is that this time, they should be able to score. And, that’s not a particularly high bar.

Coach Sean McDermott is undefeated after the bye with the Bills, and quarterback Josh Allen is nearly undefeated against the Dolphins. Even with those factoids aside, the Bills are simply better. Red-zone efficiency surely was a focal point for McDermott in self-evaluation last week, and even if there’s still some room for improvement, the Bills should be able to put up plenty of points on the Miami defense. Shutouts aside, the Bills defense can take care of business here, too, as Buffalo sweeps Miami this year. Bills 34, Dolphins 20.

Mark Gaughan

There has been a lot of talk in Miami about how well Tua Tagovailoa has looked the past two weeks. He has looked good, throwing on rhythm and with accuracy. However, look at the competition. He did it against Jacksonville and Atlanta, which are allowing the second and third highest quarterback ratings, respectively, in the NFL this season. Buffalo is allowing the lowest quarterback rating in the NFL.

I’m not as down on Tua as a lot of Bills fans. But this should be a good matchup for the Bills’ defense. Miami’s offensive line is not great. The Dolphins are more banged up than the Bills.

I don’t like giving up double-digit spreads. I especially don’t like giving up double-digit spreads in division games. But I can’t talk myself into picking the Dolphins to cover. Bills 30, Dolphins 16.

Jason Wolf

The Bills own the Dolphins, winning six games in a row, which ties a franchise record set from 1987 to ’89. The streak includes a 56-26 blowout victory at home in the 2020 regular season finale that knocked Miami out of playoff contention, and a 35-0 bludgeoning on the road in Week 2 that left Buffalo’s offensive players unsatisfied, knowing they could have performed far better.

Josh Allen has performed better against Miami than any other franchise, having thrown for 1,731 yards, 19 touchdowns and five interceptions while producing a passer rating of 108.1 in seven career games against the Dolphins. He’s also rushed for three touchdowns.

The winning streak against Miami will end at some point. But it should continue Sunday, with the Bills coming off a slim loss before the bye and having two weeks to prepare. Bills 38, Dolphins 16.

Rachel Lenzi

The Dolphins look more like a team that just wants to make it through the season rather than one that is out to avenge a run of close losses. Even the return of Tua Tagovailoa won’t put the Dolphins over the top against the Bills, a team that’s rested and ready to rebound from a loss to the Titans, who have quickly turned into an AFC contender.

When the Bills host the Dolphins, though, they won’t be negotiating with a monster marquee running back, and likely won’t be playing a game that goes down to the final plays. The Dolphins are closer to a warmup act than a playoff contender.

Instead, the Bills will defend a Dolphins offense that’s a step away from stagnant (245.4 passing yards per game, 80.1 rushing yards per game), and will continue to flex their passing game against a Dolphins secondary that is working through injuries, but tight end Tommy Sweeney will have to step up as a suitable replacement for Dawson Knox. Bills 34, Dolphins 10.