For all the positive impact Sean McDermott has had since taking over as coach of the Bills, his critics, albeit quietly, have registered one persistent complaint.
Yeah, he took Buffalo to the playoffs in two of his first three years, but he hasn’t done well against teams that have made the postseason.
And, that’s hard to argue.
Including first-round playoff losses at Jacksonville and Houston, McDermott was 3-16 against teams that made the postseason over his first three years.
But on Sunday afternoon at Bills Stadium, he and his team took a giant step toward NFL elite status.
All it required was an impressive 44-34 win over Seattle, the NFC’s best team, in a game that Buffalo dominated from start to finish and clearly wasn’t as close as the score.
Suddenly, at 7-2, the Bills, with the conference’s third-best record, have taken a stranglehold on the AFC East lead, keeping their advantage over Miami (5-3) at 1½ games plus the head-to-head tiebreaker.
And while its remaining schedule is tough – starting with next Sunday at Arizona (5-3) – Buffalo proved against the Seahawks it can play with the best teams in the league.
Here are some takeaways from the Bills’ inspired effort:
START WITH quarterback Josh Allen, who was fantastic.
He started with four glittering games that had pro football observers putting him in the discussion for NFL MVP. Then came four so-so-or-worse games that muted such talk.
But against the Seahawks he reverted to the QB who had been so impressive the first quarter of the season.
In leading the Bills to a 24-10 halftime lead, his 24 completions and 282 passing yards were the most by a Buffalo quarterback in a first half in at least 30 years.
His three passing touchdowns before intermission were a career first, as were the 154 yards through the air in the first quarter.
Allen’s 24 touchdowns (19 passing, 5 rushing) are also a franchise record through nine games.
His finishing numbers of 31-of-38 passing for 415 yards (two under his career-best) with three touchdown throws, no interceptions, a rushing score and a 138.5 passer rating (158.3 is perfect) were totally in line with what he did the first four games.
Allen never turned the ball over, consistently made good decisions and, though he was sacked a season-high seven times, that was mostly on his offensive line, which left him under siege for much of the game.
IF SOMEBODY had told you the Bills would end up in a shootout against the NFL’s highest-scoring team and that Buffalo would have only 19 carries for a mere 34 yards, what would be the conclusion? Guaranteed loss.
But those numbers were circumstantial for two reasons. First, the Bills had only two running backs active. T.J. Yeldon (back) and Taiwan Jones (hamstring) were out with injuries, leaving only Devin Singletary and Zack Moss to handle the chores.
The other factor was that the Seahawks’ defense ranked last in the league – record notwithstanding – in both yards surrendered (461) and passing yards given up (359) per game.
Buffalo’s game plan was to throw the ball and throw the ball and throw it some more.
And, on a perfect weather afternoon, Allen carried it out to perfection as wide receivers Stefon Diggs (9 catches, 118 yards), John Brown (8 for 99) and Gabriel Davis (4 for 70) had big games.
THE DEFENSE?
Buffalo hasn’t been good on that side of the ball most of the season and five of its wins have come when Allen and his offensive mates have merely outscored what the Bills gave up.
To be sure, some of the statistics were ugly.
Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson, who came in as the leading contender for NFL MVP at the season’s midway point, threw for 390 yards and two touchdowns while running for another as the Seahawks put up 419 yards total offense.
But, the Bills’ ‘D’ also turned Wilson over four times, intercepting him twice (cornerback Tre’Davious White and safety Jordan Poyer each got their first of the season) and recovering a pair of fumbles produced by the five sacks Buffalo totaled.
Then, too, a pair of struggling linebackers reappeared at a key time.
Middle backer Tremaine Edmunds, hampered by a shoulder injury suffered in the season opener, struggled for the first half of the year with low tackle totals and no big plays. But against the Seahawks, he had game-highs in tackles (11) and solo stops (8) with two tackles for loss and a sack.
Meanwhile, A.J. Klein, the free agent from New Orleans, who has made little impact replacing the retired Lorenzo Alexander, has been blistered on social media for missed tackles and minimal production. But against Seattle, with Matt Milano on injured reserve, he had five solo tackles, two sacks, a forced fumble, a recovery and four quarterback hits.
It was a perfect time for both of them to reappear.
(Chuck Pollock, a Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)
