MIAMI GARDENS — The Miami Dolphins’ regular season comes down to one game, Sunday night’s showdown against the Buffalo Bills at Hard Rock Stadium (8:20 p.m., NBC).

Miami (11-5) can win the AFC East title for the first time since the 2008 season with a victory. But Buffalo (10-6) can win its fourth consecutive AFC East title with a victory. And the Bills have defeated the Dolphins in 12 of their past 14 meetings.

However, Miami defeated Buffalo, 21-19, in their last meeting at Hard Rock Stadium, which came early last season.

One big key for the Dolphins will be staying focused on Sunday’s game instead of their past with the Bills, what’s at stake, or their injury situation.

Here are some other things to watch for in Sunday night: 

Dolphins’ dominance at Hard Rock Stadium

Miami is 7-1 at Hard Rock Stadium this season, and 13-3 at home under coach Mike McDaniel. The Dolphins have averaged 34.1 points per game at Hard Rock this season and have outscored their opponents by an average of 17.3 ppg. Their only home loss this season is that crazy 28-27 smackdown against Tennessee in which they lost a two-score lead in roughly the final four minutes.

Miami has been really good at Hard Rock Stadium. The Dolphins are confident, there’s no crowd noise to interfere with their pre-snap motion and snap counts, and perhaps most importantly, there’s no cold weather, and no snow or ice, such as there was in Miami’s 32-29 loss at Buffalo late last season.

Dolphins vs. high-quality opponents

This is a major point of contention. Miami is 1-4 against the top five teams on its schedule this season having lost to Buffalo (48-20), Philadelphia (31-17), Kansas City (21-14) and Baltimore (56-19) and having defeated Dallas (22-20). Worse, Miami’s offense didn’t really show up in these games.

The good thing is Miami is 1-0 at home in these games with the Dallas win, so there’s reason to believe location has something to do with the outcome.

Earlier in the season the Dolphins said they beat themselves in games against Buffalo, Philadelphia and Kansas City. That wasn’t the case after the Baltimore game, when everything went wrong.

For what it’s worth, Miami is 1-3 against Buffalo under McDaniel.

Containing Buffalo QB Josh Allen

There’s reason to be encouraged and discouraged when it comes to Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen. The encouraging thing is Allen can be a turnover machine. He is second in the league with 16 interceptions this season and has three lost fumbles for 19 turnovers. 

However, Allen crushed the Dolphins earlier this season by going 21-of-25 passing for 320 yards, four touchdowns, no interceptions, a perfect 158.3 passer rating.

In three games against the Dolphins last season, Allen was 90-for-142 passing (63.4%) for 1,056 yards, nine touchdowns, two interceptions and a 102.3 passer rating.

By the way, last season against the Dolphins, Allen rushed for 144 yards on 22 carries, an average of 6.5 yards per carry. 

Earlier this season, Allen rushed for 17 yards on four carries (4.3 ypc) against the Dolphins.

Allen is 9-2 against the Dolphins.

Buffalo being physical with Miami

The Dolphins must set their mindset to being physical against the Bills, who traditionally bully them on both sides of the line of scrimmage in the same way Baltimore has bullied the Dolphins up front.

For years, Buffalo would beat up the Dolphins with defensive linemen such as Mario Williams, Kyle Williams, Marcell Dareus and Jerry Hughes, linebacker Tremaine Edmunds, wide receiver Isaiah McKenzie, and running backs LeSean McCoy and Frank Gore, to name a few.

Nowadays it’s a different set of names but the results are the same.

Miami must be physical with the Bills and can’t be outmuscled at the line of scrimmage on offense or defense.  

Dolphins’ injury concerns

The list is long but the most concerning players are wide receiver Tyreek Hill (left ankle) and cornerback Xavien Howard (left foot). Hill has lost much of his explosiveness since injuring his left ankle against Tennessee three games ago. The effect on the offense has been crushing as Miami has been much easier to defend without defenses worrying about Hill’s speed, quickness, elusiveness and skill.

On the other side of the ball, if Howard can’t play the drop-off between him and backup cornerback Eli Apple is so obvious that you can expect Buffalo to immediately pick on Apple and stay away from All Pro cornerback Jalen Ramsey. If Howard can’t play, it’s a huge loss.

It’s unclear whether wide receiver Jaylen Waddle (left ankle) will play.

Otherwise, Miami should have right guard Robert Hunt (hamstring) and running back Raheem Mostert (knee/ankle) back in the lineup.

Still, Hill and Howard are worth monitoring. Hill’s possible reduced effectiveness combined with Howard’s possible absence have only been seen once before, last week’s one-sided loss at Baltimore.