Seahawks versus Bills: Some highlights and final analysis

The Seahawks had the wheel fall off against the Bills in week 9.

Outside of their victory over San Francisco, the Seahawks critics have been warning of the team’s defensive struggles. The Seahawks haven’t had much against the run but quarterbacks have torched their secondary often which has led to many games being closer than they should be and has also twice now resulted in losses.

The secondary is physical and quick but has not been able to cover anyone consistently. Gone are the pre-season claims of “we have the best secondary in the league” from the 12s, the biggest focus is now how will they fix such a looming issue.

Seattle’s Defense

The biggest consistency in games that Seattle has played in is that they and their opponent find themselves passing the ball early and often for a big total of numbers. Matt Ryan, Cam Newton, Dak Prescott, Kyler Murray, and now Josh Allen have all had their way against the ‘Hawks which is not promising with Seattle’s championship aspirations. Although at times they have shown flashes, the unit has been shockingly bad so far this year.

Josh Allen had 415 yards on 31 of 38 passing with three touchdowns and no interceptions. The Bills elected to run more of an air raid style of offense and well, let Josh cook, which quickly turned into trouble. In the first half, he already had thrown for 282 yards and three scores. Yikes.

The only positive stat for the defense was that Allen was sacked seven times.

Offensive struggles

Seattle scored 34 points but that’s not to say that it went without a struggle. MVP candidate Russell Wilson threw for 390 yards and two touchdowns but also had two interceptions and two fumbles. The load has been much heavier for him since Seattle’s running back stable has depleted due to injury.

The rushing attack has relied on the legs of Deejay Dallas and Travis Homer, on Sunday, Dallas was Seattle’s leading rusher as he totaled 31 yards on 7 carries and a touchdown.

The biggest performance of the night came from D.K. Metcalf, he caught 7 passes for 108 yards and a touchdown as he continues to shine bright during his second year in the league.

By the numbers

Seattle was able to earn 22 first downs on 11 drives through 63 plays while the Bills had 27 first downs through 12 drives on 64 plays. Buffalo outgained them 420-419.

The Seahawks did great while in the red zone as they scored 3/4 times while the Bills scored 4/7. The biggest gap came in turnovers, the Bills had zero while Seattle had four.

Buffalo controlled the ball for 31:01 compared to Seattle’s 27:59.

Who’s next?

The (5-3) Los Angeles Rams will get their first crack at Russ and the (6-2) Seahawks as they looked to bounce back from last Sunday’s outing. This will mark Seattle’s first game in SoFi Stadium, the newly built home of the Rams and Chargers.