The Buffalo Bills jumped out to an early lead and never looked back in their 31-10 demolition of the Seattle Seahawk. It was the worst loss for the Seahawks under Mike Macdonald. It was a complete breakdown by the Seahawks. On defense, the team could not win the battle of the trenches and, as a result, never really stopped the Bills when they needed to.
“That’s a result of good football team that outplayed us in three phases, and then it gets out of hand when you’re doing the things we did today where we didn’t help ourselves as well. It’s a laundry list of things”, said Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald. “We can go line item by line item if you want. The long and short of it is we got outplayed, outcoached, and we got to go make it right. Feel like it’s too often we have had this conversation with you guys of going back to work on Tuesday and hitting this thing head on and seeing if we can get this thing turned around against a good Rams team coming in here.”
Bills quarterback Josh Allen passed for 283 yards and two touchdowns. The one consolation for the Seahawks defense was Josh Jobe’s interception of an Allen pass in the second quarter. Jobe returned the ball to the Bills seven yards. On 4th and 1, Geno Smith stepped on Anthony Bradford’s foot, and the ball went back to the Bills, who marched 93 yards to take a 14-3 and never looked back.
INEPT OFFENSE
Offensively, the Seahawks started the same offensive line from last week’s win over the Atlanta Falcons. The performance was night at day. Center Connor Williams, tackles Laken Tomlison, Micheal Jerrell, and guards Charles Cross and Anthony Bradford were simply dominated. The Bill’s interior Dline of DaQuan Jones, Ed Oliver, Greg Rousseau, and DaWuane Scott kept constant pressure on Smith and never allowed as much of a sliver of space for the Seahawk’s Ken Walker II to find space. The Bills defensive line had five quarterback hits, five tackles for a loss, one sack, and one interception. The Seahawk’s lone touchdown came in the fourth quarter with eight minutes left. In addition to being dominated, the Seahawks had 11 penalties for 82 yards and were a mere 1-7 on third down.
BIG PICTURE
While some might have expected a loss to the Bills, how the Seahawks lost to the Bills is most surprising. The Bills are a tier-one team that would surprise no one if they made it to the Super Bowl. The Seahawks are a team in transition. The surprise here is how the Seahawks lacked pushback when punched in the mouth. It is rare for the Seahawks to lack the energy and physicality to fight back. While it is not a season-ending loss, it should be a warning note to the young Seahawks. If you do not bring the best against any team, let alone good teams in the NFL, you will be at the end of a bad loss.
“But this is the NFL. If you don’t bring it and have your best against good teams, you’re not going to win those games. Our guys know that. As coaches we’ve got to prepare our guys the best we can. We’ve got to call great games. This whole thing has to keep coming together. Time is ticking as we say. We are about halfway through the season now. But you take a step back, I mean, right in the thick of it in the division, and this game coming up is going to be a big one”, added Macdonald.
The critical question is how quickly they can rebound from the loss and prepare for next Sunday’s NFC West showdown with the Los Angeles Rams.
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