Buffalo Bills – 25

Seattle Seahawks – 31

The lights always seem to shine brightest for the Seattle Seahawks when it is a Monday Night Football game. That’s not just perception, that’s fact. No other team in NFL history has a higher Monday night winning percentage than the Seahawks, at .741. With the thrilling win over the Buffalo Bills, the Seahawks have now won 11 straight Monday Night Football games, pushing their all-time record to 23-8 on one of the League’s premier stages. The Seahawks always perform strong in prime-time games under Pete Carroll, now winning 14 of them to only one loss. However, the Seahawks did not coast to an easy victory as they have in previous prime-time outings. Going into this game the 4-4 Bills, losers of two straight, were not getting much love as the underdogs. The Bills forced a quick three and out from Seattle to start the game, blocked the ensuing punt, and quickly scored from a three yard run from quarterback Tyrod Taylor. Just like that the Bills were up 7-0. No panic from the Seahawks as they mastered a three play scoring drive of themselves to answer back. A drive that included a 47 yard bomb to Doug Baldwin and a three yard touchdown scamper of himself from Russell Wilson. On the next Buffalo possession, Tyrod Taylor engineered a 17-play drive that ate up 10 minutes of game play and resulted in a 5-yard touchdown pass to Justin Hunter. That drive put the Bills up 14-7 entering the second quarter. It was also the fourth longest drive given up by the Seahawks since 1998. The ease at which Buffalo was able to move the ball and eat the clock is not a sight many are used to seeing against the Seahawks. As Rich Eisen of NFL Network tweeted, “going to go out on a limb and say you can count the number of 17-play TD drives ever given up by the Legion of Boom on one hand.”

For the second time in three weeks, the Seattle defense was on the field for 40+ minutes. Yet this was not on the offense for once. The fact that the Seahawks couldn’t get off the field is their fault in this one. Going into the game, the Bills were an abysmal 7-15 on 3^rd/4^th and one, the worst in the NFL. On Monday night they were 5/6 in those situations en route to 30 total first downs. Seattle is usually one of the most sound tackling teams in the League today, but on Monday you would be forgiven if you didn’t believe that. Missed tackle after missed tackle, the Seahawks could not seem to stop a Bill in the open field. Granted, facing against LeSean “Shady” McCoy is no small task. While McCoy may be one of the hardest players to tackle in the open field, Robert Woods is not. Justin Hunter is not. Tyrod Taylor is not. The Seahawks consistently took poor angles and many times simply did not wrap up properly. But when it came down to it, the Seattle defense was able to hold the lead on the final play. Facing a 4^th and 15 with mere seconds to play, Tyrod Taylor’s pass to Robert Woods fell incomplete. The Seahawks had managed to defend CenturyLink from an upset. Richard Sherman also tallied his 29^th career interception, but more on Sherman in this game later. Buffalo is now an NFL worst 0-23 since 2012 when allowing 25+ points.

The Good - For the first time in a while, the Seattle offense as able to carry the load. They carried the load on the very capable shoulders of Russell Wilson. The 19 minutes time of possession for the Seahawks is misleading, as Wilson led the team on rapid scoring drives to keep the pressure off of their defense. Wilson finished the game 20-26 with 282 yards, and for the first time in 3 weeks he found the end zone. To go with his rushing touchdown, Wilson threw two gorgeous passes to an awaiting Jimmy Graham. Passes that only needed one hand to catch. Graham reeled in the dimes from Russ in double coverage, bringing his Monday Night Football touchdown total to 12. This was also Graham’s 13^th multiple touchdown game, his first since 2014. Graham finished the game with 8 catches for 103 yards and two scores, Doug Baldwin finished with 6 catches for 89 yards. After trailing 14-7, Seattle closed out the half outscoring the Bills 21-3, entering halftime with a 28-17 lead. They may have only been able to muster 3 in the second half, but they ate up the clock and made no mistakes to put their struggling defense in a poor position. The Seahawks improve to 5-2-1 and move into the second seed in the NFC, behind only the Dallas Cowboys. Russell Wilson continues to be undefeated on Monday Night Football. With Russell injured for most of the year, two of the best defenders hurt, and no semblance of a running game, this is an accomplishment to be looking at a first round bye.

The Bad – The running game. When the average NFL fan thinks of Seattle offensive football, they think running. They think of smashmouth, hard hitting, and downhill running. Images of Shaun Alexander and Marshawn Lynch dance in our heads. It’s the formula that took the Hawks to three Super Bowls. Yet this is no longer the case this year. Seattle has been mediocre at best running the ball, but Monday night was just awful. While Christine Michael found the end zone once again, he earned one total yard on five carries. ONE. The leading Seahawk rusher was receiver Tyler Lockett with 13 yards, and hobbled Russell Wilson with 10. Seattle’s starting running backs had 10 yards between them. To be perfectly fair, it did seem that the Hawks essentially abandoned the run in favor of a faster paced aerial attack. But this lack of balance is unsettling. Take a look back at the last handful of Super Bowl champions. All top ten in being able to run the ball. Wilson’s lack of mobility has hurt the ground game as well, going into Monday night Wilson had only 44 rushing yards. That had him tied with 39 year old Tom Brady.

The Ugly – Officiating and false narratives. Yes, officiating in the NFL continues to be questionable and have interesting moments to say the least. They may be humans trying to interpret a rule book more complex than the US tax code, but something has to improve. But this is not an article lambasting the zebras. There are enough of those already. No, this is about the false narrative that surrounds the Seahawks “getting all the calls.” Ever since the infamous “Fail Mary” against the Packers, the conspiracy theory that the Seattle Seahawks “cheat,” or “have the refs on their” side. This is right up there with 9-11 trutherism and faking the moon landing. Any time there is an interesting call, or no-call, suddenly the internet’s boo-birds instantly freak out as if the world was ending. “But Kole!” you might say, “doesn’t your admission they have gotten a few wacky calls pretty much validate that the Hawks get ALL the calls?” Let’s take a look, shall we? Yes, the “Fail Mary” was an astonishingly horrible call from replacement refs who had no business being anywhere near an NFL field. That was bad. Fair enough. “What about the PI against Julio!?” Well, what about the hands to the face against Sherman that was never called literally 5 seconds earlier? What about the illegal chop-block on Michael Bennett that was never called and has cost him two games so far? “What about Monday night last year where the ball was batted out of the end zone!?” Are you going to tell me YOU knew about the specifics of that bizarre and rare rule? Because I promise you no Seahawk or Lion knew about that. Even Gruden was unsure about it when it happened. That is simply a case of the refs not knowing their job. So let us talk about Monday night against the Bills. The boo-birds once again resurfaced to cry foul when Sherman wasn’t flagged for running into kicker Dan Carpenter. They act as if the Seahawks weren’t flagged for being off-sides, or the fact that Buffalo still had TWO chances to make that kick, which they missed. Dan Carpenter walked off the field, and walked back. He was not hurt. Sherman even touched the ball, making everything about him hitting Carpenter illegal. Bottom line is that Richard Sherman knows more about the rules than you do. And apparently the NFL referees.

Looking Ahead – This is it. The game everyone circled back when the schedule was released last spring. The Super Bowl XLIX rematch. The New England week. This season, while there is a litany of good teams, there is only one “great” team. And it is the Patriots. Shocker. Tom Brady since returning from suspension, has been unstoppable. Passing for 12 touchdowns to no picks through his first four games, he looks a lot like… Tom Brady from last season throwing for 15 touchdowns to no picks through his first 5 games. This will be a huge litmus test to see where the Seahawks really stack up in the NFL. If they are able to knock off the Pats in Foxboro, there will be great shakeup in the NFL pecking order. A win will not come easy, as Michael Bennett is out, Thomas Rawls is out, and a League-average starting offensive line has been out since 2013. The good news is that Kam Chancellor will be making his return. Having the best strong safety in the game will make a positive impact for the Seahawks. Regardless, this is looking to be an excellent Sunday Night Game. I can hardly wait!