Long Island EFL SPOTLIGHT: Week #7 Miami Dolphins (5-1) at Buffalo Bills (4-2) for the AFC East Title!

[Long island EFL]

(Long Island Electric Football League) Written By Levi Vick and Matt Zoo-York. This week's final regular season games we will keep the write-ups short and for the playoffs, we will write up each game individually and publish.

It is hard to predict who will be AFC-NFC Champions, but the favorite has to be Washington in the NFC, and in the AFC most coaches think Miami.Who will step up and make LIEFL Super Bowl XVIII? Last season is was Coach Matt Zoo-York's Kansas City Chiefs who stunned the league as the Wild Card Team turned Super Bowl XVII Champion, beating the pants off of Coach Ed Viggs San Francisco 49ers, 47-37!

Dollar, Dollar, Dollar! At the end of Week #7 season, we vote on the $3200 dollar earnings going to one coach rather than split with the losing coach. The vote is expected to be passed. By doing so, the competition will be even more exciting with high stakes and pressure games on these coaches in the battle for a LIEFL Super Bowl title!  

BILLS BEAT DOLPHINS FOR DIVISION TITLE IN OT 13-6!

Dolphins (5-1) at Bills (4-2) We'll bring the game summaries for Week #7 one at a time.

The question going into Week #7 of the LIEFL is, who will rise to the occasion and become the beast of the league? We open this week with a "Monster Game" featuring the Buffalo Bills (4-2) against the Miami Dolphins (5-1). Coach Bino has a dilemma because Miami and Buffalo are his teams this season. Who will he choose to play with as the coach of both Miami and Buffalo? He said, "I am asking Viggs to play with the Bills, and I will play with Miami."  This season, Miami has done their work quietly at (5-1), but they have some players who are loud performers on the field. Dolphins lineman Larry Little has seven tackles, AJ Duhe has five, and Jason Taylor has been one of the most competitive interior linemen in the league. The Dolphins are (21-9) in the past three seasons as they hunt for their 7th LIEFL title. 

On the road Miami did win one game this season against a struggling Cleveland Browns team, 20-17 in OT, and they've won every single home game that they've played. But really the Dolphins haven't had as tough a schedule as the New England Patriots or the Buffalo Bills. Joe Bino has gotten into a caching groove at (11-3), but nobody plays with these Dolphins like Billy O'C. In 2019, the Miami beat Buffalo in the AFC Championship Game 31-21. Prior to that the Dolphins were in last place and at the bottom of the barrel for three straight seasons. From 2016 to 2018, Miami won just three games and lost 18 before being rebuilt by Billy O'C. And they have been incredible since, with three straight playoff appearances and two Super Bowl appearances, losing both to the LA Rams and the Green Bay Packers.

Buffalo is a different team and they look like a championship team by the way they are playing. Their 56-52 loss to the Chiefs in the AFC Divisional Championship Game last season was one of the greatest LIEFL games in history. They are one of the most electrifying and exciting teams in the league. The Bills are (30-29) since 2008, when we began the seven-game format season, and they are currently (86-85) in the LIEFL. Miami will have their hands full with Jay Brown and OJ Simpson two of the best tandems in the league. It took three seasons for the Bills to gain the confidence to give that ball to Jay Brown and take over on kick returns. OJ Simpson has 11 touchdowns and Brown has six. That is a lot of offense! Buffalo started the season with an incredible game at Kansas City losing to the defending champion Chiefs 38-35, followed by another high-stakes game beating the red hot LV Raiders 28-24, and the team only got better. They beat New England 24-17, and then the Jets on the road 14-10, and when they came home, they beat the Titans 14-3. Last week they lost an amazing game to the Chargers 17-14 and that's where they sit today at (4-2).

It's even possible that these two will meet first in the playoffs but watch for the Bills to go all out today to win the title and possibly even a few home field advantage games. The battle is for the second seed and that puts the Bills or the Dolphins in a completely different situation come play off time. It was a tense game for these two teams with a lot at stake. The winner would take the Division, get a home field edge in the playoffs, and boasting rights in the AFC East, one of the most contentious divisions in the LIEFL. Playing the Buffalo Bills at home has proven to be more difficult than Miami thought, especially with a master coach like Ed Viggs at the helm for the Bills today.

 

The Dolphins came out pushing their defense to the brink against this number #1 high-octane Buffalo offense in the LIEFL! Miami's goal was to be tough on defense and match that Bills "Electric Company" front line by competing against the clock. The battle in the trenches was near equal, with Buffalo maybe having a tiny edge playing at home.

Miami trailed Buffalo 7-0, the entire game. These two teams battled right to the last second of the game, literally. The biggest play of the game for the Dolphins was a 17-yard touchdown reception by Mark Duper in the final seconds of regulation, tying the score 7-7!

The Dolphins had a rough time stopping OJ Simpson, who had 58-yards rushing in the first half. Simpson scored the first touchdown of the game on a 10-yard run to give the Bills the lead 7-0. The battle between Bills lineman Marcell Dareus and Jason Taylor was a colossal matchup with the two clashing back and forth. In the second half, the Dolphins killed the clock with 10 gritty plays, but the luck of the draw was on the side of the Bills today.

The Buffalo Bills earned the 2023 Division Banner rebounding from their loss to the Chargers last week! Losing the overtime coin toss crushed Miami coach Joe Bino. After Mark Duper scored for Miami, Jay Brown shut down any further hope for the sinking Dolphins when Brown returned a kickoff 63-yards in overtime to setup the running game and OJ Simpson at the perfect spot, at the 37 yard line of Miami. Simpson ran for a first down on the first run in overtime. Then on the second play, Simpson launched 27-yards into the end zone in overtime for the touchdown to give the Bills the AFC East Division title with a 13-7 victory, in a very exciting football game which was mostly defensive, but both teams played tough!

Miami (5-2) and Buffalo (5-2) both clinched a playoff spot, but now Buffalo gets the higher seed and the Dolphins will have to fight their way through the AFC on the road! What a way to end the regular season! OJ Simpson rushed for 95 yards, which was the key to Buffalo's win. Simpson had two touchdowns in the game, including the game winner, giving him 637-yards rushing this season on 41 carries, with 12 touchdowns going into the playoffs! Buffalo's Jay Brown was a beat during the first five games, but he's cooled off some in the past few games. Brown finished with a whopping 1409 all-purpose yards with six touchdowns, all 100-yarders on just 21 touches.

The AFC Playoffs should be exciting. Here are two in the mix!