SEATTLE — NFL team identities don’t crystallize until about this time of year. The Buffalo Bills have begun to show their primary trait is composure.
To wit, with over half the game still to be played Sunday and the Bills ahead by only four points, trash-talking left tackle Dion Dawkins felt compelled to break up an altercation between a pair of Seattle Seahawks defenders having trouble sorting out their feelings.
“For them to be fighting each other on the field, ‘Bro, look. Y’all are a team. Tone it down and come on. Next play.’” Dawkins said he told them. He didn’t even seem to be yelling. “But they were about to fight each other.”
They actually did tussle on the Seahawks sideline. Defensive end Jarran Reed confronted linebacker Derick Hall, whose roughing penalty turned a drive-ending Josh Allen incompletion into a first down at the Seahawks’ 12-yard line. Reed and Hall went facemask-to-facemask, thrust fingers into one another’s mug and eventually tried to screw each other’s heads off.
Two plays later, Allen connected with Dalton Kincaid for a touchdown and that was essentially that. Buffalo cruised to a 31-10 victory at rain-soaked Lumen Field and for the third straight week traversed various obstacles to win with aplomb.
The Bills are 6-2 and have as many wins as the rest of the AFC East combined at what not long ago was the NFL’s halfway point. They have played over half their road games already.
The Bills are coming into focus as a team that plays with remarkable confidence and calmness yet still has room to grow with the schedule looking tougher in November and December.
In a drenching rain and surrounded by the NFL’s frothiest fans, the Bills participated in the NFL’s flaggiest game for the second time in three weeks, tying the record with the New York Jets (22 accepted penalties between them) and breaking it Sunday with the Seahawks (24 accepted penalties). The Bills won both rather easily, sandwiching a dominant performance over the Tennessee Titans last Sunday in Highmark Stadium.
Allen threw his first interception in 301 attempts, giving Seattle consecutive goal-to-go situations in the second quarter and rookie returner Brandon Codrington made some horrible decisions that caused poor field position.
No big zip-a-dee-doo-dah. Buffalo boomeranged almost every setback.
“We have the mindset, when something bad happens, that it was a fluke,” Bills edge rusher Greg Rousseau said. “All right, whatever. On to the next play.”
Buffalo’s offense produced a pair of 90-yard touchdown drives before halftime, while the defense’s first half consisted of two three-and-out series and choking Seattle’s two goal-to-go opportunities down to three points. Offensive coordinator Joe Brady got a variety of playmakers involved with a rhythm that converted 53 percent of third downs and the lone fourth-down attempt. Defensive coordinator Bobby Babich pulled all the right levers. Combined, they amassed 38:03 in possession time. Seattle’s lone TD was in garbage time.
One could view the Seahawks’ implosion as a completely self-inflicted demise, but that wouldn’t give the Bills’ dominance along the line of scrimmage enough credit.
The Bills’ first goal-line stand started with Rousseau tackling tailback Kenneth Walker III for a 1-yard loss. On second down, defensive tackle DaQuan Jones, penalized for a neutral-zone infraction earlier in the drive, lined up diagonally on center Connor Williams’ right earhole. Williams’ snap sailed over quarterback Geno Smith’s head for a net loss of 19 yards. Then the Seahawks were flagged for delay of game.
Eventually, what seemed like a surefire tying touchdown was a whimpering field goal.
“We knew they had to block us,” Jones said. “They have two great running backs, and when they got down there, we kind of knew what was coming.
“When you get penetration, the center’s got to move the ball even quicker and there can be a mishap. All that plays a part. With the way we play, we expect something like that’s going to happen.”
The second goal-line stand was necessary after Allen threw his first interception since the first half of the 2023 regular-season finale against the Miami Dolphins. As wideout Amari Cooper slipped on the wet turf, practice-squad callup Josh Jobe jumped Cooper’s route and returned the ball 33 yards to Buffalo’s 7-yard line.
Seattle decided to go for it on fourth down after Rousseau stuffed Walker for no gain. Smith took the direct snap and pivoted to his right, but he tripped over Williams, whom Jones had stood upright.
“That can be from the nose tackle penetrating really hard on the play before,” said Rousseau, “and makes him think, ‘I have to snap the ball really quick,’ and boom. You don’t see it all the time, but every play matters. Every play affects the next one.”
Then came the whipsaw.
Allen rewarded the defense for bailing him out by piloting a 12-play, 93-yard touchdown drive — on which the Seahawks began to fight themselves — to muffle Lumen Field.
“That was the biggest drive,” Bills cornerback Rasul Douglas said. “They got the interception. The crowd was going crazy. They were down seven (points). So in their mind, they’re thinking, ‘Oh, we can change the game. Tie it up maybe, or do something.’
“We took the field, and we were, like, ‘Offense, we got y’all. Bro, if they get anything, they’re getting three.’ They didn’t get anything. Once that happened, all the momentum just left (Seattle), and it was all with us.”
The Bills didn’t let up either. Up three touchdowns late in the third quarter, they stayed in the Seahawks heads — so much so that their hosts played like the road team. Seattle started a drive at its 25-yard line with a fumble, followed by a holding penalty, a false start, a Smith scramble for 10 yards in which he taunted the Bills’ sideline and got flagged for that, an illegal formation penalty and a punt.
James Cook ran 17 times for 111 yards and two touchdowns and added three receptions for 22 yards. Khalil Shakir caught a career-high nine passes for 107 yards. Rookie wideout Keon Coleman looked grown, wrestling a 2-yard touchdown toss away from Pro Bowl cornerback Riq Woolen in the first quarter and making another contested catch for 21 more yards in the third quarter to set up another TD on his way to five receptions for 70 yards.
Allen was 24 of 34 for 283 yards and two TDs along with that harmless interception. He also ran seven times for 25 yards.
Asked if he was surprised at the way the Bills dominated in a notoriously hostile atmosphere against a division leader, Rousseau answered in the same tone his team played: calmly.
“We’re not surprised,” Rousseau replied, “nor are we satisfied.”
(Top photo: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
