Three questions: Assessing Keon Coleman, the Bills' luck and the AFC East
Three questions on our mind after Sunday’s blowout win by the Bills over the Seahawks.
Three questions on our mind after Sunday’s blowout win by the Bills over the Seahawks:
1. What was the most positive development for the Bills in what turned out to be a cakewalk?
Bills wide receiver Keon Coleman makes a touchdown catch over Seahawks cornerback
Riq Woolen in the first quarter Sunday. Joshua Bessex, Buffalo News
Keon Coleman’s big plays were the most significant good news for Buffalo. We expected the defensive line to play a strong game against a sub-par Seattle offensive line. The front four did its job. We expected James Cook to roll up the yards on a Seattle defense that ranked 28th in yards per attempt allowed.
Coleman, however, continued his upward trajectory. His touchdown was against a capable starting cornerback, Riq Woolen, who was having a good season. Coleman’s above the rim seam ball for 21 yards late in the third quarter was a big-time play. Then in the fourth quarter, Coleman beat Woolen’s press-coverage attempt with a nifty juke off the line of scrimmage, and Woolen had no choice but to grab him for a pass interference foul.
After making five catches for 70 yards, Coleman now is on pace for 841 receiving yards. That would be outstanding for a rookie. Gabe Davis, in Year 4, had 746 last season.
2. How should we quantify the amount of luck the Bills got Sunday?
Credit the Bills with starting fast on both offense and defense and finally getting the “script” of the game to go their way. Stay on schedule on offense, play with a lead on defense.Nevertheless, this game easily could have been much tougher for the Bills, who were without star linebacker Terrel Bernard. The Seahawks were minus star wide receiver DK Metcalf. Clear advantage for Buffalo.
Then Seattle squandered two goal-line possessions with colossal errors. Connor Williams snapped the ball a foot over Geno Smith’s head on the first. Williams stepped on Smith’s foot to create a 6-yard loss on the next and a turnover on downs.
If Seattle doesn’t mess up, it’s probably 14-14 at halftime. The Bills are better than the Seahawks. Given the way the second half went, the Bills played well enough to beat Seattle regardless. But things broke Buffalo’s way to make this far easier than it might have been.
3. Seriously, what's the magic number for winning the division?
It was a great day around the NFL for the Bills, because the Jets, Dolphins, Ravens and Bengals all lost.The loss by the Jets (2-6) to lowly New England was New York’s fifth in a row. There’s no way the Jets, despite all their talent, are getting to 10 wins. It’s hard to see Miami (2-5) or New England (2-6) getting to 10 wins. None of them may hit nine wins. It’s no stretch to envision the Bills clinching the AFC East with four games left in the regular season.
The next step for Buffalo is putting a nail in the Dolphins’ coffin next week. Then the opportunity is there for the Bills to get themselves in contention for a top-two seed in the AFC, despite their losses to Baltimore (5-3) and Houston (6-2). At this point, in fact, the Bills would benefit from seeing the Jets beat Houston on Thursday night