♦ Jamon Meredith will be active for the first time since the Bills signed him off Green Bay’s practice squad. He will be the primary backup at both offensive tackle spots.♦ I anticipate Jenkins being active over McIntyre. Scott had additional value on special teams and you can expect Jenkins to take his place on special teams.
♦ Ellis Lankster will make his Bills debut. He’ll be the fifth corner back and see action on special teams.
♦ Although the Bills have won four of the past six meetings with Miami, they were swept by the Dolphins last season. The Bills lost at Miami, 25-16 and in Toronto, 16-3.
♦ Linebacker Joey Porter, who was a Bills killer last season, will be a game time decision with a sore hamstring. I’d count on him starting but perhaps not being able to finish the game. Reports are his hamstring is bad.
♦ Chad Henne makes his first start at quarterback for Miami. He looked bad in relief after Chad Pennington went down with the shoulder injury at San Diego last week. He threw a pick six interception. Except Miami to run the ball.. a lot.
♦ A key match up will be Jason Taylor lining up against Jonathan Scott at left tackle. Scott played well against Tampa Bay but struggled in pass protection against the Saints last week. Taylor leads all NFL active players with 121.5 sacks. It will be a major test for Scott.
♦ Trent Edwards has completed 61.5% of his passes, but he’s only averaging 6.6 yards per attempt. Meanwhile, Miami has given up five passing plays for more than 40 yards. This is a good week to reinsert Lee Evans and Terrell Owens down the field early and often.
♦ Fred Jackson not only leads the Bills in rushing, he also leads the team in both receptions (15) and receiving yards (134). Josh Reed is second with 10 catches.
♦ It’s time for Roscoe Parrish to bust a long punt return. He’s only averaging 2.7 yards on seven chances with his longest being only 15 yards.
♦ The much beleaguered Keith Ellison is leading the Bills with both 36 tackles and 21 of them being solo. With the exception of the last five minutes against New England he’s played extremely well.
♦ The Bills have five sacks on the season, led by Aaron Schobel’s pair. Conversely, they’ve given up 10 through three games and are on pace to give up 53 for the season. That number would easily surpass what they gave up in 2006, when J.P. Losman was dumped on 47 occasions.
♦ The Bills already have three interceptions this year (Whitner, Scott, Schobel) and have brought back two of them for touchdowns. The team had only 10 picks all of last year.
♦ Buffalo needs to run more offensive plays. Through three games, they’ve run 40 less plays than their opponents. That will happen if they can improve on their 28% third down conversion pickups. Opponents are converting 40% of the time.
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