Russell Wilson’s 4 turnovers, more awful Seahawks defense in 44-34 loss at Buffalo
On the weekend of the results from the latest presidential election and exercise of Americans’ constitutional right, we hold these truths to be self-evident:
Russell Wilson can’t make mistakes for the Seahawks to win.
Not with their porous, and poor, defense.
Seattle’s otherwise MVP-candidate quarterback turned the ball over four times Sunday. He has seven lost turnovers in the last three weeks. With the Seahawks’ last-ranked defense that allows yards, especially passing, and points like they aren’t even on the field, Wilson has to be nearly perfect.
He was nowhere near that. And the Seahawks lost for the second time this season, both in the last three games when Wilson has been committing all the turnovers, 44-34 at the AFC East-leading Buffalo Bills on a blue-sky, 70-degree day in the Buffalo suburbs, the warmest day for a November home game in Bills history.
The Seahawks (6-2) never warmed to the task. This game wasn’t as close as the final score suggests. They basically pulled themselves back to the pack atop the NFC West.
Coach Pete Carroll let out a long sigh before he started his postgame comments after this one.
“Well, what I would tell you is: I don’t recognize that game,” he said.
“We haven’t seen us look like that. And it’s a game that, I don’t have any place in my brain for it. ...
“They made it look easy.”
For all the yards Seattle’s defense—absolutely Carroll’s defense—allows, it was 415 more on Sunday by Bills quarterback Josh Allen, any team that goes minus-anything in turnover margin is usually going to lose.
Minus-4, on the road, against a division leader? Nothing else matters. Not even Wilson completing 28 of 41 passes for 390 yards and two touchdowns. Both came late in garbage time.
On a day a league source told The News Tribune the Seahawks had a contract extension with the 69-year-old Carroll through 2025, and have quietly for months, the team went minus-4 in turnover margin in a game for the first time in four years. It was only the fourth time that’s happened since Carroll became coach in 2010, and just the second time since his first Seahawks season.
The other times, per the Associated Press’ Josh Dubow: minus-6 in December 2016 against the Packers, minus-5 against the 49ers in December 2010 and minus-4 against the Broncos in 2010.
The Seahawks’ margins of defeat it those four games: 10, 28, 19 and 17 points.
“We just don’t turn the ball over like that,” Carroll said. “But we did today.
“And they capitalized on all of it, and made us pay.”
Buffalo scored off all four of Wilson’s turnovers, but only 16 points, on three field goals and a touchdown.
The rest of the 28 points and game was on that last-ranked defense.
Allen had 16 touchdowns in the season’s first six games, but none in last two games for Buffalo (7-2) entering Sunday. Those were the Bills’ one-score wins over the lowly New York Jets and New England Patriots.
He had three touchdown passes against Seattle’s soft coverage Sunday.
Before halftime.
“Anytime you’re winning the turnover battle by that much, you’re gonna have success,” Allen said. “It was a complete, total win today.
“Our guys got open.”
Like, from-here-to-Erie open.
Stefon Diggs and the Bills’ receivers were so free against Seattle’s ransacked secondary they weren’t running but galloping breezily through it. There were no Seahawks defenders within 5 yards of almost every Bills receiver as they caught almost all of Alen’s easy tosses. The seventh-overall choice in the 2018 draft completed 23 of his first 25 passes, with three touchdowns, all in the first half.
He finished 31 for 38 passing for 415 yards, three touchdowns and a sterling passer rating of 138.5.
“We’ve just got to be better,” All-Pro safety Jamal Adams said.
He had a sack and shared another with Jarran Reed in his return from five games out with a strained groin.
Allen is the fourth opponent to throw for at least 400 yards on Seattle in eight games. He joined Atlanta’s Matt Ryan (450) and Dallas Dak Prescott (472, a record allowed by the Seahawks in one game). New England’s Cam Newton threw for 397 against them in week two.
But the Seahawks won all of those games, because Wilson was masterful.
Sunday, his was mistake-ful.
Again, his defense didn’t help.
The Seahawks could have gotten the Bills’ offense off the field at midfield with their eighth sack of the day, this one by extra defensive back Ryan Neal, in a one-score game early in the fourth quarter. But Adams was called from dragging down Bills wide receiver Cole Beasley with one arm during his route 40 yards from Allen getting sacked. Beasley
The 5-yard penalty and automatic first down extended the Bills drive. So did a 33-yard catch and run on a screen pass to wide receiver John Brown outside right behind the right side of Buffalo’s offensive line. That was on third and 16 from the Seattle 35. Buffalo converted that into a 1-yard touchdown run by Zack Moss. Instead of punting or trying a 60-yard field goal in a 27-20 game, the Bills led 34-20 with 12 minutes left.
As an example of how this is Carroll’s defense, not that of oft-criticized coordinator Ken Norton Jr.: Carroll said he messed up the defensive play call. He called for blitzes from multiple layers of the Seahawks’ back seven defenders. When the Bills linemen went outside to block for the quick pass to Brown, there were no Seattle guys there to block.
“We just gave them a lot of easy stuff,” Carroll said.
The Seahawks’ next three plays on the ensuing possession: sack of Wilson, sack of Wilson, and Buffalo cornerback Tre’Davious White brilliantly peeling back up field leaving short receiver David Moore on third and long and jumping in front of intended, deeper receiver DK Metcalf for Wilson’s eighth interception of the season.
Buffalo scored on Allen’s 3-yard run on the next play to take a 41-20 lead and essentially end the game.
Wilson threw his first two touchdowns of the day in garbage time late, to Moore and Metcalf.
Their quandry
The Seahawks began the game in a noticeably passive, drop-deep mode trying to keep plays in front of them.
The Bills and Allen shredded that approach.
Allen threw on the game’s first three plays, after Seattle allowed a 60-yard return by Andre Roberts on the opening kickoff. The third, easy completion was a touchdown pass of 15 yards to freely running wide receiver Gabriel Davis.
Allen threw on 12 of Buffalo’s first 13 offensive plays. The 12th pass was another easy touchdown, tight end Tyler Kroft beating K.J. Wright across the back of the end zone for a 1-yard score. Buffalo led 14-0 barely halfway through the first quarter.
“They didn’t even try to run the football,” Carroll said of the Bills’ 45 drop backs to pass and 19 runs.
Seven of those were by the scrambling, fast Allen. And most of Buffalo’s 19 runs game let, with its win in hand.
With all the room the Seahawks are giving receivers, why run?
“We gave them some stuff with some misplay,” Carroll said. “We did not plan to be off them as much as it looked like.”
Carroll said starting cornerback Quinton Dunbar, beaten behind him on a second and 26 to set up a Bills touchdown among many passes against him, was playing hurt. He had to drag a sore knee through the game because Shaquill Griffin, the starting cornerback opposite Dunbar, was out injured for the second consecutive games.
Linden Stephens eventually replaced the struggling (in multiple ways) Dunbar in the fourth quarter.
Carlos Dunlap made his Seattle debut at defense end. The two-time edge rusher Seattle acquired two weeks ago in a trade with Cincinnati had a sack, two hits on Allen and three tackles for losses while playing nearly all the defensive snaps into the fourth quarter.
Adams blitzed once and Dunlap got two of his quarterback hits early. But all were on Allen completions to so many wide-open receivers. Eight different Bills had a catch in the first quarter alone.
After that, Carroll and coordinator Ken Norton Jr. had the Seahawks blitzing Allen more. But it was often futile. The lack of consistent pressure from the defensive linemen, a glaring issue all season, allowed the Bills to handle each of Seattle’s front four one on one with offensive line. That afforded Buffalo its fifth interior offensive lineman to pick up the Seahawks’ much smaller blitzing linebackers and defensive backs.
It was a mismatch. Adams and fellow All-Pro Bobby Wagner from linebacker often blitzed into a blue-jersey brick wall, repelled to a stop at the line without coming close to affecting Allen. He completed 24 of 28 passes for 282 yards and three touchdowns—in the first half.
By halftime it wasn’t that the Seahawks weren’t blitzing. It was that their blitzes were so ineffective.
Buffalo gained 259 yards with only two called running plays in the first half. The Seahawks were fortunate to be down only 24-10, after Tyler Bass’ 61-yard field goal on the final play of the half drifted wide right.
But then in the second half, the defensive line took advantage of injuries to three Bills offensive lineman and began pressuring Allen. Tackle Jarran Reed had two sacks, to give him the team lead on the season with three. After Reed’s second one, Adams stormed in free off the offense’s left edge and dumped Allen on third down, for his third sack of the season and first since September.
Adams’ was Seattle’s sixth sack Sunday, half its season total entering Sunday.
On the Seahawks’ sideline following the three and out, a pumped Adams roared to his teammates. Wilson hit Will Dissly for 26 yards on the ensuing possession. Then Wilson brilliantly stepped away from a sack by free-blitzing Bills safety Siran Neal on third down. The quarterback avoiding that loss made Jason Myers’ field goal attempt from 44 yards instead of 50-plus. Myers made it a one-score game, Seattle down only 27-20 entering the final quarter.
Then Wilson committed two more turnovers.
“If we turn it over four times it’s going to be a hard day,” Carroll said.
“That’s enough to have the game look like that.”
Through all the “mess,” as Wilson termed it, the quarterback noted this was a seven-point game in the fourth quarter.
“We’ve just got to be cleaner,” Wilson said, multiple times.
“The reality is Seattle Seahawks are 6-2. ...We are still in a good position (and) it’s a long season.”
Then the QB who is 31-8 after in-season losses, the best such record since the 1970 NFL-AFL merger, said: “The one thing we do great is, we respond.”
This story was originally published November 8, 2020 at 1:22 PM with the headline "Russell Wilson’s 4 turnovers, more awful Seahawks defense in 44-34 loss at Buffalo."
