Seattle Seahawks: 5 takeaways from loss versus Bills

Bills dominant Seahawks in Week 9, hanging 44 points on the struggling defense.

The Seattle Seahawks simply didn’t show up in Week 9. On the road, in Buffalo, going up against a struggling Bills team, most felt good about the matchup. But, there is a reason why we play games. The Bills came out firing against the Seahawks. It appeared that they caught them off guard with their aggressive passing attack early on. Simply put, the Seahawks struggled on offense, defense and special teams.

In week 8 against the 49ers, the defense was the story of the game as they were finally able to get to the quarterback. Unfortunately, in Week 9, the defense took two steps back as the secondary struggled all game long.

I will say this though, in back-to-back weeks, Seahawk fans have gotten a break from the roller-coaster emotion type games. In Week 8, it was enjoyable watching the Seahawks beat down the 49ers. Not so much in Week 9 though, as the Bills pretty much did whatever they wanted.

As always, here are 5 takeaways from the second defeat of the year.

The East Coast streak has been snapped

Coming into this matchup against the Buffalo Bills, the Seattle Seahawks were riding a 10 game east coast winning streak. In 2019-2020, the Seahawks went undefeated on the east coast during the regular season. They also won on the east coast in the Wild Card round against the Philadelphia Eagles. This year, the Seahawks were 2-0 on the east coast defeating the Falcons and Dolphins.

A lot of credit was given to coach Pete Carroll and his staff for this streak as most teams do not perform well when they travel to the other side of the country. Coach Carroll is well known for being enthusiastic on the sidelines, but he is also a great teacher. He developed that trait in his time with the USC Trojans and it has translated over nicely into the NFL.

In fact, many were giving the Seahawks an advantage simply because of how dominant they have been on the east coast. Now, one game doesn’t destroy their east coast play, but, they certainly were sloppy in this one. It’s hard not to even consider for a second that it had something to do with all the traveling. I know it’s an invalid excuse, but certain guys just looked unprepared.

After all, this whole east coast streak has been about mentality and preparation. Believing that you can go into any time zone, play at any time and still come out victorious. Coach Carroll preaches competition and that’s why he loves these opportunities of flying across the country and playing football. The Seahawks have 2 more east coast trips left on the schedule. One will be coming up at the end of November as they head back to Philadelphia to take on the Eagles. The other is later on in the season where they will travel to Maryland to take on the Washington Football Team.