Serving Bills Fans Since 1998 Home BILLS DAILY GAMEDAY PREVIEW GAMEDAY HOMEPAGE Week 10: Bills vs. Seahawks Preview The Bills season has gone from bad to worse as they are now 1-7 at the halfway mark. This week, Alex Van Pelt gets his first start in four years on Jim Kelly Day at Ralph Wilson Stadium. The Seahawks come to town riding high off of a huge win over Oakland on Sunday night. Seattle is playing .500 ball but are looking for a good second half to put them in the playoff hunt. Facts and Figures Matchup: Seattle (4-4) at Buffalo (1-7) Date: Sunday November 18th Place: Ralph Wilson Stadium Time: 1:00pm Television: CBS Announcers: Don Criqui and Steve Tasker Spread: Seattle by 3 1/2 Series: Seahawks Lead 5-3 Last Meeting: Bills 42-23 in Seattle last year Hawks Offense: Rush (5th); Pass (26th); overall (17th) Hawks Defense: Rush (t-11th); Pass (16th); overall (11th) Bills Offense: Rush (21st); Pass (18th); overall (18th) Bills Defense: Rush (25th); Pass (7th); overall (16th) Injury Update Just when the Bills seem to be getting healthy they suffer a huge injury. Rob Johnson will be lost for at least four weeks and possibly the rest of the season with a broken collarbone. Tony Driver has been placed on injured reserve and is out for the season. Jeremy McDaniel, Leif Larsen, and Phil Hansen all hope to return this week. Larsen has missed a few games with a dislocated elbow and McDaniel was supposed to return last week from a high ankle sprain but he was inactive. Hansen pulled a calf muscle last week in practice. The Seahawks come into the game relatively healthy. Their big injury is to starting running back Ricky Watters who has missed a couple of games with a shoulder injury. They haven't missed a beat behind Shaun Alexander who ran for 266 yards against the Raiders. The Hawks were also without John Randle last week who has a knee injury. For complete injury news throughout the week and the Official NFL Injury Report go to our Injury Page. Key Matchups MLB Brandon Spoon vs. RB Shaun Alexander: Alexander scorched the Raiders run defense last week and it is now up to the Bills defense to stop him. Spoon will lead the way in plugging up the middle. WR Peerless Price vs. CB Shawn Springs: This will be a battle of two young, talented players. Price is the Bills only downfield threat these days and he will need a big play or two to lead the team to victory. CB Antoine Winfield vs. WR Darrel Jackson: Jackson is coming into his own as a good wideout threat. Winfield will need to continue his strong play of late to shutdown their main receiving threat. RT Jerry Ostroski vs. LE Michael Sinclair: Ostroski needs to hope he had the rust peeled off last week. Sinclair is a pure sack threat and needs to be contained. RB Travis Henry vs. MLB Levon Kirkland: Kirkland will be the man in the middle trying to stop Henry. The Bills will try to get Henry more involved in the offense this week. Game Plan When The Bills Have The Ball: With Van Pelt in at quarterback they will try to run a more true version of the West Coast Offense. He has a better handle of it than Johnson. Look for a lot of quick slant passes to the wide receivers and hope they can break a long one or two. Travis Henry will hopefully get his 20 carries mixed in with the passing game. When The Seahawks Have The Ball: Seattle also runs the West Coast Offense and do it better than Buffalo. They will try to run the ball behind Alexander as much as possible. If that works they will use play action to hit the short passes to the wideouts. Bills Daily Prediction All the common logic points to a big Seahawks win since they are the more talented team and the Bills have struggled at home worse than on the road. The difference factor that we are counting on is Jim Kelly. He won't play but his day should keep the crowd fired up and into the game. Van Pelt and Kelly are close friends, so Alex will try to do his old pal proud: Bills 20, Seahawks 17 Season Prediction Record: (4-4) Season Record Against The Spread: (3-5) Complete Statistical Matchup Game Analysis and Review - Coming Monday Evening! Positional Breakdown and Grades - Coming Monday Evening! 2001 Gameday Homepage 2000 Gameday Homepage Back to Bills Daily homepage Articles Index