By Scott M. Johnson
Herald Writer
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. – The win over Oakland was big. Beating Jacksonville and Denver didn’t hurt, either.
But if the Seattle Seahawks are going to legitimately challenge for a playoff berth this season, they have to win the so-called gimmes.
That’s what was so important about Sunday’s victory, a 23-20 win over the hapless Buffalo Bills in a game that didn’t have anyone talking about possible future postseason matchups.
Certainly the Seahawks had botched coverages on defense. And a few of their offensive possessions were almost over before they began.
But there were also long, sustained scoring drives, a lack of turnovers, and a knack for coming up with defensive plays at key moments.
And in the end, there was a victory that helped put the Seahawks (5-4) over the .500 mark for only the second time since the 1999 season.
“It was a great win for us, a great win to start the second half of the season,” coach Mike Holmgren said. “I was proud of the way the guys played. We played with a lot of intensity, which was missing a couple weeks ago.”
Two weeks ago, the Seahawks went to Washington, D.C., and lost to a struggling Redskins team behind an uninspired effort. Any thoughts of a replay of that game were erased on Sunday’s first play from scrimmage, when the Seahawks’ Levon Kirkland leveled Buffalo running back Travis Henry on a run up the middle.
That was only the beginning of the intensity at Ralph Wilson Stadium, where at least three fights broke out in the stands during the fourth quarter alone.
The Seahawks walked away with a narrow decision in their 12-round battle with the Bills (1-7), and headed back to Seattle with a sense of relief.
“We knew that if we didn’t come in here ready to play, these guys would put us on our butt,” Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said. “We played just average early, but we just kept going and finally started clicking. It was barely enough for a win.”
In the end, Seattle’s much-maligned special teams unit came up with two huge plays to seal the victory.
First, there was a 51-yard field goal by Rian Lindell that gave Seattle a 23-13 lead with 3:12 remaining in the game. It appeared that the 35-second play clock had run out on the Seahawks prior to the kick, sending Holmgren into a sideline tirade as the ball barely cleared the uprights. But after looking around and finding no flags, Holmgren breathed a sigh of relief.
“It was an error on our part, and we kind of had to rush the field goal,” Holmgren said. “But we made it, and then I acted immaturely. Then I apologized to the team.”
Buffalo responded on Jay Riemersma’s 6-yard touchdown reception with 1:23 to go, setting up a possible game-tying field goal if the Bills could recover their own onside kick. But Seahawks tight end Itula Mili laid out Buffalo’s Shawn Bryson to free up teammate Shawn Springs for an easy recovery of the onside kick, assuring the Seahawks a victory.
“I was surprised that (Bryson) actually ran down and jumped,” Mili said. “He looked at me, and I was pointing at him like, ‘I’ve got this guy.’ Then he started to jump, and I thought, ‘Oh, no, this guy’s gonners.’ I didn’t think I hit him that hard, but he went – pow – right into the ground.”
The Seahawks scored the first touchdown of the game on a 13-play, 82-yard drive that culminated in Koren Robinson’s first touchdown reception of the season. That gave Seattle a 10-0 lead and set the tone offensively.
The first drive of the second half was another long one, going 70 yards in eight plays before Shaun Alexander scored from the 1-yard line to give Seattle the lead for good, at 17-10.
Buffalo would not go away, however, and looked as if it might be on the way to the game-tying score with five minutes to go before Michael Sinclair and Chad Brown combined on a sack to force a key fumble. Seahawks defensive lineman Antonio Cochran plucked the loose ball out of the air to set up Lindell’s insurance field goal.
As utterly winnable as this game looked on paper, it still represented a large hurdle for the Seahawks. The players were just relieved that their inconsistency problems did not resurface this week.
“We’re climbing, and that’s the most important thing at this point in the season,” middle linebacker Kirkland said. “I feel like we’re playing well, and if we can keep stepping up like that, we’re going to be great.”
The next two weeks bring two more struggling teams in Kansas City and San Diego, so the Seahawks are hoping for a similar effort to what happened Sunday.
“We have a lot to work on,” Holmgren said. “The good part about it is, we won a game on the road and started the second half of the season with a win. That’s the good thing. The thing we have to roll up our sleeves and look at is, there’s a bunch of plays in this game where we didn’t function as smoothly as I would like.”
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