By Nick Wojton / Billswire.usatoday.com
There’s always a bunch of games, within the game.
These individual matchups will always help determine whether the Buffalo Bills (4-7) take home a win on Sunday. That same thought holds true for their Week 13 meeting against their divisional foe, the Miami Dolphins (5-6).
With that, here’s three key matchups to watch in Sunday’s Bills – Dolphins meeting:
Zay Jones vs. Xavien Howard
The past two games has been the Robert Foster show for the Bills wide receiver room. Those two games have come with mixed results from No. 1 wide receiver Zay Jones.
Two weeks ago, Foster and Jones but were successful against the Jets. Jones had a career day himself overshadowed by Foster’s 105-yard outing. Jones pulled in eight grabs for 93 yards with a touchdown. Also worth noting, Matt Barkley was Buffalo’s quarterback that day. Last week rookie Josh Allen return under center. For the first time this season, Jones was invisible and didn’t have a catch. Jones has a solid opponent across from him on Sunday in Howard, who has five interceptions this year. Can Jones re-appear in Buffalo’s game plan?
Tremaine Edmunds/ Matt Milano vs. Kenyan Drake/ Frank Gore
The Bills have had a fantastic season from their linebackers. Matt Milano should be an easy Pro Bowl selection, but it’s Buffalo (eye roll). He’s tied with Miami’s Howard for the NFL lead the takeaways (6) and he’s got the fourth-most tackles for loss this season for linebackers in the NFL. Edmunds has taken his lumps as rookie particular against the pass, but his athleticism is obvious and fantastic for his 6-foot-5 frame.
This week that duo will be relied upon to shut down another duo, the one in Miami’s backfield with veterans Kenyan Drake and Frank Gore. Drake had two touchdowns last week against the Colts for Miami and has home run speed which can kill a defense. Gore is freakin’ 35 years old and isn’t slowing down his ability to run between the tackles at all.
Micah Hyde/ Jordan Poyer vs. Ryan Tannehill
Over the past two weeks, things have drastically improved for the Bills in regard to turnovers. First, they got rid of Nathan Peterman. Three games ago the Bills had a minus-four ratio against the Bills thanks to three of Peterman’s interceptions.
On top of that, Buffalo is now a plus-four in turnovers over the past two games with an interception from Milano and safety Jordan Poyer last week. If the Bills can bottle up the run game, look for Poyer and fellow safety Micah Hyde to make an impact. Ryan Tannehill seems to save his worst football for the Bills. He does have a 12-8 touchdown-to-interception ratio against Buffalo in his career, but look for the interceptions to increase if the Bills are going to extent their winning streak to three.