The Buffalo Bills have a chance to become the first NFL team this season to hit the undefeated 3-0 mark when they host the 0-2 Miami Dolphins at Highmark Stadium on Thursday Night Football. The Bills enter the game favored by 12.5 points, the largest point spread of any NFL game so far this season, according to NBC Sports.
But the game is even more of a mismatch, or at least appears to be, because of the disparity in quarterbacks, according to longtime NFL insider Jeff Howe of The Athletic.
In Howe’s weekly “Quarterback Stock Report,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen holds the No. 1 ranking of 32 NFL starting QBs, as he has in all three weeks of the season. But the Dolphins‘ signal-caller, 2020 first-round draft pick, No. 5 overall, Tua Tagovailoa ranks 21st.
Disparity Between QBs Not as Great as it Seems
Looking at the raw numbers, however, the disparity between the reigning MVP and the Dolphins quarterback does not appear as gaping as the rankings would indicate. In two games, Allen has thrown 47 completions in 71 attempts, a percentage of 66.2, for 542 yards.
Tagovailoa in his two starts recorded 40 completed passes in 55 attempts, or 72.7 percent, for 429 yards. The Dolphins quarterback has thrown for three touchdowns, Allen for two.
One significant difference between them: Allen has not yet had a pass intercepted. Tagovailoa has allowed three picks already.
On Howe’s “Stock Report,” Tagovailoa dropped a place from the previous week, after the Dolphins’ Week Two 33-27 defeat to the New England Patriots at home.
In that game, Tagovailoa was outshined by Patriots sophomore Drake Maye who came away with a passer rating of 137.3 to 115.5 for Tagovailoa. Maye got through that game without an interception, while Tagovailoa had one. Both quarterbacks threw two touchdown passes.
Allen Playing With Full-Face Visor
In Howe’s ranking, Maye’s performance vaulted him from the 21st position to No. 18.
The biggest bounces of the week belonged to Russell Wilson of the New York Giants, and Daniel Jones of the Indianapolis Colts. Each quarterback leaped five positions, but are still near the bottom of the league at No. 25 and No. 24 respectively.
Allen will be playing under at least one unfamiliar condition on Thursday night. He will be wearing a full-face visor on his helmet to protect his injured nose. He suffered the bloody mishap in the first quarter of Sunday’s game against the New York Jets.
“I pulled it when I probably should have handed it off,” Allen later explained, as quoted by Heavy.com writer Drake Bentley. “I tried to throw it and saw him push and decided to tuck it. I don’t know what hit me. It was a knee, it was a hand, it was somebody. Helmet just kind of came down right on the bridge of my nose and it just started leaking.”
Allen re-entered the game two plays later, but with the 30-10 victory well in hand, Bills head coach Seam McDermott removed Allen from the game with 8:23 remaining in the game, letting backup Mitchell Trubisky ice the win.
If Tagovailoa can avoid, for once, turning the ball over he conceivably could give the Dolphins at least a chance at a major early-season upset. More likely, Allen and the Bills will continue their dominant run over Miami. Buffalo has won the last six games between the two teams and 13 of the last 14 going back Allen’s rookie season of 2018.
Insider Sees Josh Allen Facing Mismatch in Thursday Night Football Matchup