Everyone wondered whether the Buffalo Bills could score enough points to keep up with the Seattle Seahawks in the lead up to Sunday’s marquee matchup in Orchard Park. The Seahawks came in as one of the league's most potent passing attacks in football with Russell Wilson playing the best football of his career.
The shocking storyline from the Bills' 44-34 win has to be the defensive effort. Getting to Wilson five times, getting four turnovers, holding them to 3-for-12 on third downs, and holding the D.K. Metcalf/Tyler Lockett duo to 148 yards and a score is a huge win for a Bills defensive unit struggling to find the success Bills fans have grown accustomed to during Sean McDermott’s first four seasons.
The defense had taken a brunt of the blame for the Bills' struggles over the past month after starting the season 4-0. However, it was the offense really opened my eyes.
It was known that the Seahawks would get theirs and they certainly did, ending the game with 34 points even though it never felt particularly close in the fourth quarter. It was widely understood that in order to beat the Seahawks, Buffalo likely had to score 35 points.
The Bills, lead by quarterback Josh Allen, posted a season-high 44 points on a Seahawks defense, who looked lost against the pass all afternoon.
Allen finished the afternoon with a super-efficient 81% completion percentage on 38 attempts, tallying up 415 yards and three touchdowns and, frankly, outdueled one of the league's favorite MVP candidates at the halfway mark of the 2020 season.
Many in the media wondered if what Bills fans saw in the first quarter of the season was a fluke. Whether the kind of pants-on-fire play we saw in matchups against average quarterback play from their opponents could finally manifest itself against an elite-level quarterback. One that has a Super Bowl ring to his credit.
Allen proved that he could go head-to-head with the league's best and come out on top, something that became incredibly important to prove after a shaky stretch of games.
A lot of credit has to go to Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, who conjured up a fantastic gameplan that featured just 10 carries from Bills running backs, just one week after running the football 38 times.
What Daboll proved on Sunday was an understanding that the NFL is a week-to-week league. It felt like a gameplan we’d see the New England Patriots unveil against the Bills, where’d they change their offensive identity each week based on the strengths of the defense they play in a given week.
This performance was great to see coming off of a grind-it-out type of game last Sunday against the Patriots at Bills Stadium.
But maybe most importantly, the Bills decided early in the week of preparation that they weren’t scared of the Seahawks.
Sure, Wilson is one of the best quarterbacks in the league, and maybe one of the best deep-ball throwers ever. But the Bills like their guy, and they finally had the confidence to go toe-to-toe with one of the league's best on Sunday.
They were rewarded for that confidence, and I suspect Sunday's game could be a turning point for the Bills moving forward.
It was the kind of confidence on Sunday that was disappointing to not see against the Kansas City Chiefs a few weeks back. You can respect the talents of some of the league’s best quarterbacks, while having the confidence your guy can match it.
It feels like the Bills finally have that guy in Allen.