The Buffalo Bills improved to 7-2 on Sunday with a hard-fought 44-34 victory over the Seattle Seahawks.
Buffalo turned in quite a performance in a game where a statement needed to be made. The Bills exploded for their most points in a game since a 45-16 victory over the San Francisco 49ers back on Oct. 16, 2016. Meanwhile, the defense made big plays in big spots to keep one of the National Football League’s best offenses under control.
Despite being on a two-game win streak following victories over the New England Patriots and New York Jets, the Bills needed to prove a lot to the public, and maybe themselves, that the season is back on track and this team is still the contender we thought they could be earlier this fall. Sunday’s win over Seattle wasn’t perfect, but it may have been the Bills' best game to date, and it could prove to be a major turning point.
Getting a win over a competitive, talented and well-coached team, that’s a true contender in the NFC, should give this Bills team a huge boost. With the performances we saw from Allen, a fully-healthy John Brown and the defense, there could be a lot more to look forward to as we now hit the back half of the regular season.
However, let’s not look to far forward yet. Take a night to enjoy this victory over a premier team in the NFL.
Oh, and also, the Bills are now 7-2 for the first time since 1993. Enjoy that, too.
Here are three quick observations from the game:
1.) Allen played one of the best games of his career
The Bills offense, for the most part, has gotten off to good starts in every game this season. Well, they came sprinting out of the gates against Seattle, and Allen rode that hot start all day.
Allen completed 31-of-38 passes for 415 yards, matching his career-high, threw for three touchdowns and running for another. Allen’s 282 passing yards in the first half were the most in a first half by any NFL quarterback this season.
Allen also threw a touchdown and ran for a score in the same game for the 14th time in his career on Sunday, breaking the franchise record previously held by Jack Kemp. Allen’s 14 games with a rushing and passing touchdown are the second-most by any quarterback in his first three NFL seasons (Cam Newton holds the record with 20).
Allen also didn’t rely on the run game very much. Buffalo rushed for just 34 yards on 19 attempts as a team, but they really didn’t need it.
The offense scored more points on Seattle than any opponent has since Pete Carroll took over as head coach in 2010. In fact, the 44 points scored by the Bills was the most a Carroll-coached team had given up since Jim Harbaugh’s Stanford Cardinal put up 55 against USC on Nov. 4, 2009.
2.) Brown can do a lot (when he’s healthy)
Brown being back to 100% health may have been the biggest boost the Bills needed on Sunday.
Without Brown in the lineup, the Buffalo passing attack had been noticeably weakened over the last couple of games. However, Brown made his presence felt against Seattle, racking up 99 yards on eight catches. One of his eight catches was a 33-yard catch-and-run that put Buffalo at the Seattle two-yard line and set up a Zack Moss touchdown early in the fourth quarter.
Stefon Diggs was freed up to make more plays as he led all receivers with nine catches for 118 yards.
Really, the whole receiving corps seemingly benefitted from Brown’s return. Including Brown and Diggs, eight different Bills receivers caught a pass, with six of them having multi-catch games. Gabriel Davis, who finished with four catches and 70 yards, scored Buffalo’s third touchdown, while Isaiah McKenzie and Tyler Kroft caught the first and second respectively.
3.) The Buffalo defense (specifically the secondary) performed well
It’s hard to give a defensive unit a ton of credit after giving up 34 points, but considering Seattle averaged a league-best 34.3 points per-game going into Sunday’s matchup, the Bills didn’t do that bad of a job.
After taking a lot of heat from the fans and media about their lack of forced turnovers so far this season, the Buffalo secondary responded. Safety Jordan Poyer intercepted Russell Wilson in the end zone late in the first quarter to cap off a nice stop by the Bills defense, keeping the score at 14-0 in favor of Buffalo. Cornerback Tre’Davious White intercepted Wilson in the fourth quarter as well, which led to a one-yard rushing touchdown from Allen to make the score 41-20.
Buffalo brought the pressure to Wilson all afternoon. The Bills knocked Wilson down 16 times, the most quarterback knockdowns recorded by any defense this season.
Along with the pair of interceptions, Wilson fumbled twice as well, with the Bills recovering both times. The four takeaways were the most by the Bills defense in a single game this season.