Bills Central

Bills affirm status among NFL's elite in dominant 31-10 win over Seahawks

The Buffalo Bills strengthened their lead in their division with a dominant Week 8 win over the Seattle Seahawks.

David Faux

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The Buffalo Bills emerge from the Pacific Northwest with a win, beating the Seattle Seahawks 31-10 in their Week 8 bout. It was a very decisive victory, as the Bills controlled the game the entire way; the Seahawks’ self-implosion certainly aided the Bills through this entire game.

Below we’ll take a look at the most inspired performance of the day, the side of the ball that still has some questions, a part of the defense that requires a better performance, and the most irksome performance of the game.

Inspire - Bills’ passing attack being in rhythm:

Josh Alle
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While the Bills’ passing offense hasn’t necessarily been bad, it has had a propensity to live off unscripted and improvised plays through the first few months of the season. It looked like the passing game was much more in sync in Seattle, finding a way to attack downfield and hitting the right timing on screen passes, in particular. There were still plenty of times where the off-script plays were critical, the Dalton Kincaid touchdown at the end of the first half being a clear standout (happy National Tight End Day, by the way!). All that said, the Bills generally looked more put together and on schedule than they have for most of the season, which is a positive sign for this team moving forward as they start to move toward the more difficult part of their schedule.

Rookie wideout Keon Coleman and Dalton Kincaid both scoring touchdowns was a very welcome sight, with Coleman in particular showing for a second straight week that he is becoming more comfortable in this offense and gaining more of Josh Allen’s trust. The rookie finished the day with five catches for 70 yards and a one-handed, dominant touchdown. Kincaid had four catches for 31 yards and a touchdown, and Khalil Shakir continued his dominant season with nine catches for 107 yards. In addition, the Bills were able to consistently run the ball as they needed, with James Cook finishing the day with 111 yards on 17 carries and a pair of rushing touchdowns. Ray Davis also contributed late to salt the game away with six carries for 29 yards. It's another good sign that this team is getting closer and closer to playing true complementary football.

Related: All studs, no duds in Bills' 31-10 blowout win over Seahawks

Inquire - Bills’ Defense:

Buffalo Bill
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Speaking of complementary football, the Bills’ defense had a fantastic performance Sunday. The defense played strong all day long, particularly against Kenneth Walker, who’s a danger any time he touches the ball. While the Seahawks’ offensive line has had many injuries, it’s still difficult to contain someone who has the speed and cutback ability that Walker has, and the Bills put the clamps on him and the rest of the Seattle offense for the entire game. The real question is, how well will this be sustained through the rest of the season? Not every team will have the same inept offensive line that the Seahawks have, and in the interest of fairness, Seattle had several opportunities to score early on in this game, and through their own ineptitude, found multiple ways to score three points when they had several chances in goal to go situations. The return of Von Miller from suspension next week will certainly be a boost to the Bills’ pass rush, which also struggled in this game. This is not to take away from a great performance for the Bills' defense, and hopefully they can use this as a sort of springboard to be better moving forward, but it’ll take more than a single game to feel 100% confident in the coming weeks.

Require - Bills’ pass rush:

Geno Smit
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Despite a good game from the Bills’ defense, it was without any sort of consistent pass rush. Despite the Seahawks' woes on the offensive line, the Bills weren’t quite able to get a pass rush on Geno Smith for most of the game. While Smith deserves credit for being a very good pocket manager, to get as few pressures and sacks as the Bills did is disappointing. As stated previously, getting Von Miller back should be a good boost, but the reality is that the lack of pass rush really comes from a lackluster interior rush. DaQuan Jones, Ed Oliver, and Austin Johnson are simply not pushing the pocket effectively or consistently. If that starts happening, sacks from the EDGE players will certainly begin to tick up. If it doesn’t, then the Bills will continue to struggle to get an effective pass rush, particularly in the playoffs.

Irk - Penalties:

NFL penaltie
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It was only a few weeks ago when the Bills and Jets played a game on Monday night that was littered with flags, totaling more than 20 in that game alone. This game managed to surpass it. Whether they’re the result of bad calls, it doesn’t truly matter. The Bills haven’t been a great team when it comes to penalties in the Sean McDermott era. It’s not so bad as the Rex Ryan era, but that’s a pretty low bar to clear. McDermott’s teams have generally played with a looseness that comes from wanting your players to play fast, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of penalty yardage, either. Whether it’s holding, offsides, defensive pass interference, yada, yada, yada, we all know the drill at this point. The Bills finished with 13 penalties for 85 yards, and it simply has to be better. Against better teams, the hole you dig yourself in by having penalties becomes a force multiplier; it becomes exponentially more difficult to get yourself out of a bad situation that you create yourself through penalties. 

Related: This Keon Coleman block is the funniest thing you'll watch today

What’s next for the Bills?

The Bills return home to Buffalo to face their AFC East rival Miami Dolphins next Sunday. The Dolphins are reeling, only winning once since their Week 2 loss to the Bills. While their offense looked better with the return of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa in Week 8, they still couldn’t find a way to win at home against the Arizona Cardinals. On paper, this is a very one-sided matchup favoring the Bills. But divisional games can get weird, and the Dolphins are certainly desperate, if nothing else.

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David Faux
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