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Buffalo starts fast and dismantles the Seahawks

Posted on by Vanessa
Buffalo starts fast and dismantles the Seahawks

SEATTLE – Since 2017, the Seattle Seahawks had not suffered a home defeat more lopsided than the brutal defeat at the hands of the Buffalo Bills on Sunday afternoon.

Bills fans can remember the Super Bowl years when Rich Stadium was absolutely one of the NFL's best home-field advantages, a place no NFL team wanted to visit whether it was sunny and 80 degrees in September or in the December terribly cold and snowy and January.

That's how it used to be in Seattle, but if this one-sided loss was any indication, those days appear to be long gone as it was the Seahawks' third straight loss in their extremely loud stadium.

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There were so many reasons why Buffalo earned its sixth win in eight games, one that extended its lead in the AFC East to a ridiculous four games over the Jets and more than three and a half games over the Dolphins, but one of the biggest was the beginning .

Slow starts have been a problem for the Bills, most recently last week when they fell 10-0 to the Titans, the same Titans who lost 52-14 in Detroit on Sunday. But Sean McDermott made a point of coming out of the gate flying throughout the week, and the Bills heeded his call.

“It’s always a priority, even if we didn’t do it particularly well,” McDermott said. “So I'm telling you, we go back and look at everything, and so we went back and looked at some things and I felt like more than anything we got into a rhythm early on.”

They certainly did, thanks to the defense forcing two quick threes and outs and then when Josh Allen got the offense going with a 91-yard touchdown drive on the first possession that set the tone for the sunny , rainy, cloudy, sunny, rainy day.

“It was great,” Allen said. “I had a quick start, first drive, go down there and get points. We've talked about this repeatedly over the last few weeks. It felt good to go out and get it done.”

When asked if this was the Bills' best starting tight end performance of the season given the opponent and the venue, Allen said, “It's right up there, and I think you look at it from all three phases.” I I think everyone was there, knew their job and performed it at a high level.”

I agree and my grades reflect the following:

Passing offense: A

Allen was on point all day, despite throwing his first interception of the season, a strange play that made it seem like he expected Amari Cooper to be in better position for a quick slant shot just at CB See Josh Jobe as if he would jump the route and make the choice. Otherwise, Allen was nearly flawless on 24 of 34 for 283 yards and two touchdowns.

Khalil Shakir was great, as always. He caught nine of 10 targets for 107 yards and it seemed like whenever Allen needed a completion, he went there and Shakir came through. He has now caught 36 of the 38 balls thrown to him this season.

How about Keon Coleman maturing before our eyes on a weekly basis? He caught five for 70 and made a great catch against outstanding CB Riq Woolen for the first touchdown of the day. Cooper, still learning the offense, stayed quiet with one catch for three yards, while Dalton Kincaid and Dawson Knox combined for seven catches for 53 yards and a Kincaid TD.

Up front, the offensive line had a rough day with penalties, but when they weren't violating the rules, they kept Allen clean as he only suffered one sack.

RUNNING INJURY: A

James Cook ran like he was angry. We usually see him rushing through the line and making people miss, and he did that a lot, but he also ran through touches and collected his third 100-yard game of his career, finishing with 111, an average of 6.5 and two TDs, including the second, where, as Allen said, he “lowered the boom.”

Ray Davis got some playing time late and gained 29 yards. After three knee losses from Mitch Trubisky, the Bills ran for 167 yards and 5.38 per attempt. The backs were excellent, but again the line made room for them as the Bills clearly won the battle in the trenches. The Bills have now surpassed 150 yards rushing in three of their last four games.

Pass Defense: A-

Geno Smith entered the game leading the NFL in rushing at 283.6 yards per game, but had 123 through three quarters and finished with 212, almost all of which was harmless since the Seahawks didn't score their first touchdown until they trailed by 31 yards – 3.

He was clearly hampered by the absence of star WR DK Metcalf, but the Seahawks have other viable weapons in Tyler Lockett and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, but the Bills did an excellent job taking them away. JSN caught six for 69 yards, but Lockett had one catch for nine yards. Rasul Douglas and Christian Benford continue to build their reputation as one of the most effective boundary CB duos in the league, and Taron Johnson just keeps going, making plays in the pass-and-run game while leading the Bills with eight tackles.

Smith was sacked only once, late in the game by Javon Solomon, but he was under so much pressure that he was ineffective, and a pressure from AJ Epenesa led to Smith intercepting a pass that was tipped by Casey Toohill and dropped by DT Austin was caught by Johnson. This was a game where three different defensive linemen played such a role.

RUN DEFENSE: A+

Going into the game, Kenneth Walker was the Bills' top priority because they knew that if Metcalf was out, the Seahawks would likely lean on him in the ground game. Instead, Walker never had a chance to get going as the Seahawks only had the ball for 22 minutes and trailed almost the entire time, often by double digits.

Walker finished with a meager 12 yards on nine carries, the second-lowest total of his NFL career, while Zach Charbonnet, a big, physical runner, was also mute, four yards on three carries. On three of the game's biggest plays, with Seattle staring at first-and-goal at the 7 after Allen's second-quarter interception, both runners were stuffed a total of three times before the play exploded on fourth down when Smith stumbled and fell out of bounds Midway through, a huge turnover on downs that was one of the key moments in the game.

The impressive thing about run defense is that the Bills did it with LB Terrel Bernard and Baylon Spector in his place. Spector finished the game with five tackles and held his own, although pass coverage continues to be a major issue for him.

SPECIAL TEAMS: B-

It certainly wasn't the cleanest game, and that doesn't even include the kickers. On a slick field, Tyler Bass made a 27-yard field goal and all four of his extra points, as well as having five touchbacks on six kickoffs. Punter Sam Martin had an outstanding day with three punts that averaged 49 net yards as none were returned, one went out of bounds at the 9.

On the other hand, Cam Lewis' illegal block on Seattle's first punt gave the Bills a drive start at the 9 on their first possession of the game, and on their second possession they started at the 12 because Brandon Codrington made a ridiculous decision to punt Field to go a punt at the goal line.

Ray Davis stood deep on the second half kickoff and made his own poor decision, running the ball three yards deep and only getting to the 23, costing the Bills seven yards of field position. And then in the fourth quarter, Reggie Gilliam prevented a kickoff return that pushed the Bills back to the 15.

Late in the game, the Seahawks botched a punt and Mack Hollins recovered for Buffalo at the Seattle 26. So yeah, definitely a mixed bag.

COACHING: A

McDermott had a call to make on fourth-and-2 in the first quarter, but I thought punting from his own 42 was the right decision at the time, even though I'm sure the fans were in an uproar were. The Bills were already up 7-0 and there was no reason to risk giving the Seahawks any momentum with a potential stop. Martin's punt went out of bounds at the 9, making it even clearer that it was the right decision.

The Bills were ready to play, another positive for the coaches, but the penalties are an issue. Two weeks ago the Bills went 11 for 94 yards in a win over the Jets, and in this game they went 13 for 85 yards. They managed to win both games, but that won't always be the case.

On offense, Joe Brady had great feel in this game, striking a great balance between run and pass, although that's easy to do when both things are working, as he had 38 minutes of time of possession, 8 of 15 on third down, and season highs in first downs (29) and total yards (445) suggest this.

And on defense, Bobby Babich's group came through, holding the Seahawks to 1 of 8 combined on third and fourth downs and 233 yards, including just 32 on the ground, the Bills' lowest output since Nov. 17, 2019, against Miami .

Sal Maiorana has been covering the Buffalo Bills for four decades, including 35 years as a full-time beat writer for the D&C, and he has written numerous books on the team's history. He can be reached at [email protected] and you can follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

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