Buffalo Bills: 3 keys to victory in Week 2 against the Dolphins

If the Buffalo Bills can do these three things, they will be in a great position to secure their first win of the season.

There is no question that the Buffalo Bills are a good team and have a talented roster. However, in their first game of the season they didn’t necessarily show that and this week the coaching staff had plenty to work on with their team in practice.

Entering this weekend’s game against the Miami Dolphins, these are three keys to victory that the team is focused on starting with something they need to correct immediately for this week, and the remainder of the season.

Limit Turnovers/Penalties

It is hard to consistently win in the NFL and it gets tougher when teams beat themselves with mistakes. One way they do that is with turnovers and penalties, which the Buffalo Bills had plenty of both last week against the Steelers.

The Bills finished the game with 10 total penalties, with eight accepted for 81 yards with a majority of those penalties being holding penalties by the offensive line. On the offensive side of the ball, Dion Dawkins had three holding penalties (one declined), with Mitch Morse, Daryl Williams and Jon Feliciano each called for one (Feliciano’s was also declined).

On the defensive side of the ball, Levi Wallace was called for penalties twice that totaled 31 yards and helped extend drives for the Steelers.

It also wasn’t just penalties, as the Bills struggled to protect the ball. They had four fumbles and while they only lost one, they can’t afford to be putting the ball on the ground and risk losing it. The deciding factor though, while not necessarily a turnover was a blocked punt in the fourth quarter. This put the Steelers up by double digits and out of reach for the Bills to come back.

Chris Brown with the Buffalo Bills tweeted that Sean McDermott said punt protection was a primary focus this week, and rightfully so, I imagine one of the top messages was eliminating all these type of mistakes.