Bills defeat Seahawks with their most impressive win of the season

SEATTLE – The Buffalo Bills have put together some pretty impressive performances in the first half of the season on their way to atop the AFC East, but given the competition Sunday afternoon, their 31-10 win over the Seattle Seahawks is their best win ever.

Beating the snot out of the Dolphins after losing Tua Tagovailoa and then crushing the hapless Jaguars and Titans was astute in its own way, but the Seahawks, inconsistent as they are, started the day leading the NFC West and came in with a 20-point demolition of a decent Falcons team on the road, and there are a number of top players on both sides of the ball.

So it was a sight to behold that the Bills went to Lumen Field, always a difficult venue for away teams, and gave the Seahawks this kind of flogging.

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And who knows how much more one-sided it would have been if the Bills hadn't committed so many penalties, some of which negated some nice offensive plays.

Josh Allen fired up and put on quite a show for FOX analyst Tom Brady in the broadcast booth, and James Cook ran not just fleetingly but hard on his way to the third 100-yard game of his career, scoring two touchdowns as well.

Meanwhile, the Buffalo defense made life difficult for Seattle's Geno Smith, who clearly missed injured star wide receiver DK Metcalf. Smith began the day as the NFL's leading passer, but after three quarters he had just 123 yards before a massive rushing effort as the Bills extended their lead to 31-3 with 11:19 to play.

Here are a few observations:

Josh Allen's interception-free streak ended

Allen had completed 203 consecutive passes without an interception to start the season until he simply threw one to his right early in the second quarter to drill Josh Jobe as he tried to hit Amari Cooper with a quick slant. The streak actually spanned 300 passes, dating back to last year's regular-season finale at Miami and included the two playoff games.

However, after Jobe returned the pick to the 7-yard line, one of the game's biggest moments occurred, turning the game in Buffalo's favor for the rest of the afternoon.

The Seahawks ran Kenneth Walker for three yards, then Zach Charbonnet for three yards, taking the ball to the 1, and on third-and-goal, Dorian Williams and Greg Rousseau stuffed Walker for no gain.

Here, Seattle went for the game-winning touchdown, but Smith tripped over his center's foot, fell to the ground, and Rousseau set him up at the 7, causing a big turnover on downs.

From there, the Bills marched 93 yards in 12 plays to take a 14-3 lead in what was obviously a seismic shift in the game's fortunes.

Allen was great as he completed 24 of 34 for 283 yards and two touchdowns, one to Keon Coleman (five catches, 70 yards) and one to Dalton Kincaid (4-31) on a rainy day.

Khalil Shakir becomes a star

Shakir is so important to the Bills' passing game that he is an irreplaceable player. Just look at how terribly Allen struggled in the game Shakir missed in Houston. Without his most reliable receiver, he had one of the worst games of his career, completing just 9 of 30 passes.

Looking at the Bills' recent history, it's easy to draw a comparison: Shakir is the new Cole Beasley, a small, quick receiver who just knew how to get open, especially against zone coverage.

But here's the difference: Beasley made a catch and then was unable to gain multiple yards after the catch because he so often went down on first contact. Shakir makes catches and has the ability to either evade tacklers or rebound on first contact for extra yards.

Part of this is also due to Allen's better ball placement. That wasn't Allen's strength when Beasley was here, but now he's much better at giving his receivers the ball in places where they can do something with it, and Shakir is the best on the team at taking advantage of that.

He made two catches for 17 yards on the Bills' first TD drive and then two for 24 yards on the second TD drive. After his 35-yard catch-and-run early in the third quarter that helped set up Tyler Bass' field goal for a 17-3 lead, he had seven catches on seven targets for 93 yards to finish the day with nine catches for 107 yards. The only target he didn't catch came in the fourth quarter, and that was because the pass was batted at the line of scrimmage.

Bills overcame sloppy play

The Bills won this game against their will. It was a dumpster fire in the penalty area, especially for the offensive line.

Alec Anderson had a hold call, David Edwards had a false start and Connor McGovern had a hold, all on the first drive of the game, but the Bills still found a way to drive 91 yards and get the ball in the end zone. Dion Dawkins had a false start later in the first quarter and another in the fourth.

On the first possession of the third quarter, Spencer Brown assessed a holding penalty on the first play of the game and later one, which was declined because it was the fourth possession. And then on Seattle's first possession of the third, they would have expected a quick third-and-10, but Christian Benford gave them a first down with an illegal contact penalty.

At the end of the game, the Bills were flagged 13 times for 85 yards. Not that the Seahawks were much better, as referee Ron Torbert's crew was all over them too, calling for 11 for 82 yards. Several cases in which penalties were compensated were not taken into account. The total of 24 penalties were the most in the league this year. The previous high was 22 in the Bills-Jets game three weeks ago.

It was one of those NFL games where the officials are just too much a part of the game. Sure, some of the calls were definitely penalties, but there were also plenty of sensitive things that marred the NFL every week.

Austin Johnson's interception was huge

Here's a sentence I never thought I'd type: Defensive tackle Austin Johnson intercepted. Yes, that was pretty crazy, and unsurprisingly it was the first of his career for the eighth-year veteran, in his 123rd NFL game.

Midway through the third quarter, the Seahawks were on the move, trailing just 17-3 and trying to get within a score. Smith dropped to pass and was immediately put under pressure by AJ Epenesa from the left. He tried to get rid of the ball with a throw down the middle of the field intended for Kenneth Walker, but Casey Toohill tipped it and it bounced right into Johnson's stomach, negating Seattle's attempt to get back into the game.

The Bills gained possession at their own 49 with 5:59 left, and four minutes later Cook scampered around left end for a two-yard touchdown, and at 24-3 the game was essentially over.

Bill's defense silenced Kenneth Walker

Without Metcalf, the Seahawks wanted to move Walker into the running game because he is one of the best in the NFL and has the quickness to the rim that could have given the Bills' defense had he played without linebacker Terrel Bernard.

But Walker never played a role. He was stuffed near the goal line on the two big plays and was barely involved after that. He finished the game with 12 yards on nine carries. It was the second-lowest total of his 36-game NFL career.

It was easily the Bills' best run defense performance of the season, as Seattle managed just 32 yards on 17 attempts, including 16 on five Smith scrambles.

Sal Maiorana has been covering the Buffalo Bills for four decades, including 35 years as a full-time beat writer for the D&C, and he has written numerous books on the team's history. He can be reached at [email protected] and you can follow him on Twitter @salmaiorana. https://profile.democratandchronicle.com/newsletters/bills-blast

Josh Allen's interception-free streak ended

Khalil Shakir becomes a star

Bills overcame sloppy play

Austin Johnson's interception was huge

Bill's defense silenced Kenneth Walker

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