Buffalo Bills thankfully didn’t let Fitzmagic happen again

The Buffalo Bills faced a familiar foe when Ryan Fitzpatrick brought his Dolphins to Orchard Park. Thankfully, the Bills defense was up to halting any Fitzmagic from happening.

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen has a short resume, but his metrics against the team from South Beach last season had been rather sublime. He tossed five touchdowns in addition to jogging in the end-zone twice.

(Jogging? Legend Ron Burgundy explained, “This new fad called uh, jogging. I believe it’s jogging or yogging. it might be a soft j. I’m not sure but apparently you just run for an extended period of time. It’s supposed to be wild.”)

Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores declared battered and bruised Josh Rosen the starter for the season only two weeks back. Since that time, gunslinger Ryan Fitzpatrick has resurfaced as the starter.

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The Buffalo defense would likely have made Rosen suffer a very long day had he still been the starter. His inexperience may have been an opportunity for that smothering Bills defense to keep Miami’s attempt to move the ball extremely limited.

Fitz has been known to come off the bench in his eight different career jerseys and light up the scoreboard. Typically, after he catches magic in a bottle, reality kicks in and he continues throwing balls aggressively in places where Bret Favre’s arm would still have been risky. Teams gameplan for him and his touchdowns flip-flop to interceptions, and soon he is moving to a new city. He once again managed to make a game of it against his former Buffalo team.

Snuffing out the Fitz-led, tanking Dolphins team shouldn’t have been as difficult as it was, and it could force Brandon Beane to take a hard look at the personnel of this team.

Patrick Mahomes needed the medical staff to pop his kneecap back in place last Thursday night in Denver. How much time he misses is projected at quite a few weeks. Does this injury change the way that Beane approaches the trade deadline?

The reason I throw this inquiry out there is based on the easy schedule on paper the Bills are up against. In addition, obviously the successful record of 5-1 to this point of time plays heavily into this question. The total dominance of the Buffalo defense plays heavily on too many fans opportunistic stance.

Buffalo played New England so close and the AFC appears so very much wide open. Many of the teams that were penciled in to be competitive have struggled. Some teams on the rise have regressed or locked into a  holding pattern as opposed to taking the next step. Some injuries, such as the Ben Roethlisberger season-ending tragedy, have left openings for other teams to compete for division titles or wild card positions.

Several weeks back I would have been firm in my stance to not interrupt the chemistry of this team Sean Mcdermott has focused and prepared regularly. The uptick in wins, as well as the play of the defense,  has one wondering just how good this team can be.

You may be dialed into the turnovers by Josh Allen especially in a couple of games. Should you not be more tuned into the fact that he is developing and improving as games go on? Allen has shown a trend of being able to fine-tune his accuracy and big-play attempt tendency when games are on the line.

Top defenses usually fail to stay at the top of the league for multiple seasons. Offenses tend to improve as top core players gain experience. Offensive linemen gel and coordinators and coaches gain more consistency when the same offensive systems remain in place as opposed to the rotating door approach.

Prior to the 31-21 win over Miami, the Bills had been the only team to hold every opponent below 250 yards passing this season as well as under 150 yards rushing. Buffalo defenders had not allowed a team to put up over 17 points. They were third in the league allowing 14 points per game. They ranked third as well allowing only 275 yards in total offense per game.

Not too shabby. They needed a comeback to beat the lowly Dolphins, but winning in the NFL is not nor is it supposed to be easy.

One area that has really contributed to pre-Miami success is the opposing teams have only connected on two of eight field goal attempts. Pressure and other mental aspects may lend a hand to this amazing stat. That said, bad kicking really is the main contributor to that Bills advantage.

I would love to report it is the special teams play, scheme execution, home field weather advantage or the process overall here. For the most part, it falls on the other teams very bad kicking. It has been a key helpful advantage, but I cannot say this has been driven by the Bills. I can proclaim that Buffalo has seized opportunities created by those points the other teams have left on the table.

Buffalo won only two road games all last season. They have started out 3-0 on the road this season. The last time the Bills executed away from Orchard Park with that level of success was back in 1993, a Superbowl season.

The “Almost a Dynasty” squad was the last team assembled by the Bills front office to start a season with that kind of productivity while traveling, and many leadership positions that have gone through the revolving doors since those Polian, Butler, and Levy built teams.

Since we already went old school referencing the glory years allow me to proceed with said theme. The Bills took a different path to victory. They still managed to squish the fish.