SB Nation Reacts: Bills Mafia confident Buffalo can slow down Miami Dolphins

When an NFL team scores 70 points via 10 touchdowns on offense, people are going to talk about it. But after scoring seemingly at will, it’s natural to expect a regression of sorts, if not fully to the mean in the proceeding weeks. It’s also easy to understand why some fans might be nervous about their team’s chances facing the 70-burger squad right after such dominance.

But not Buffalo Bills fans. When we asked this week if Bills Mafia believed their favorite team could and would slow down the Miami Dolphins’ offense, 76% of respondents voted an emphatic yes!

The NFL is a week-to-week league, and that means anything can happen when teams square off. While the Dolphins have gotten plenty of press due to their Week 3 thrashing of the Broncos, many fans believe such a performance is an outlier to the true mean of Miami’s offensive potential.

Again, it’s essentially impossible for any NFL team to sustain that sort of success, unless they’re facing college teams. Yes, it’s fair to consider Denver resembled a college team last weekend. But that’s a topic for another day, on another blog — which thankfully, isn’t this one.

Being confident in your favorite team’s chances is what being a fan is all about — we love everything about our Buffalo Bills. The Dolphins present a completely different sort of challenge to any the Bills have faced yet this season. Miami appears to re-invent itself on a weekly basis, offensively. But the Dolphins now must go up against a defense helmed by head coach Sean McDermott, which through three games has shown to be incredibly athletic, versatile, and stingy at the goal line.

This of course isn’t a must-win game for the Bills, but sledding will be incredibly difficult moving forward if they drop to 0-2 in the AFC East.

Regarding Bills fans’ confidence in the direction of the team, voters continue a steady climb in their approval. This week, 88% of those who responded are content in the Bills’ on-field product and the work of the coaching staff.

We’ll see where things go next week where, short of a tie, the Bills could find themselves on one side or the other of an extreme narrative about their fortunes in 2023.

Nationally, SB Nation asked voters to once predict winners in NFL Week 4. Outside of Bills Mafia, it appears few have confidence that the Buffalo Bills will get things done at home against the Miami Dolphins.

As for NFL fan confidence league-wide, take a look where things are three games in to the 2023 season.

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