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| Week 1 | |
| Seahawks | 10 |
| Bills | 34 |
Week 1: Bills Dominate Seahawks 34-10
Special teams comes up with big plays in big win.
by Steve Saslow
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The Bills knew they needed to get off to a fast start this season and they sure did as they dominated a very good, but banged up, Seahawks team 34-10 at Ralph Wilson Stadium. The special teams scored two touchdowns and setup a third with a fumble recovery to lead the team to a blowout win although they had help from a tenacious defense and an offense that made plays at the right time.
A low scoring defensive battle in the rain started to open up late in the first quarter. A 32 yard completion to Lee Evans setup Marshawn Lynch's 21 yard touchdown run on a draw play to give the Bills a 7-0 lead. Lynch earned his yards in this game but still managed to average over 4 yards per carry as he finished with 76 yards rushing.
The Bills would make it 14-0 on the first big special teams play by Roscoe Parrish as he juked a few defenders on his way to 63 yard punt return for a score. It was the second consecutive season that Parrish has taken a punt for a score on opening day. That has never happened before in the NFL.
Matt Hasselbeck struck back and hit Nate Burleson for a 20 yard score to cut the Bills lead in half. That is when the offense got opportunistic. They drove 63 yards thanks in part to a 24 yard completion to Josh Reed. That setup a field goal with one minute remaining in the first half. The defense forced a three and out and the offense took advantage thanks to a 19 yard pass to Evans that setup another Rian Lindell field goal, his second in a minute that gave the Bills a 20-7 lead at the half.
The teams traded punts to start the third quarter but then the Seahawks had the field possession advantage and cashed in with a field goal to cut the lead to 10 points. The Bills then drove 79 yards before they would blow the game open very quickly.
On fourth and seven deep in Seattle territory the team went for the kill. They faked the field goal and Brian Moorman hit a wide open Ryan Denney for a 19 yard touchdown pass.
The special teams were just getting warmed up. Jon Corto would force a fumble on the ensuing kickoff and Rian Lindell would recover to set the Bills up at the Seahawks 30. The offense would answer on the next play as Trent Edwards hit Robert Royal for the 30 yard touchdown pass to give the Bills the final margin of victory.
The Bills knew how important it was to start the season fast and they sure did thanks to solid special teams and just enough plays offensively. That goes along with a hungry defense that suffociated the Seahawks offense and you get a big Bills win over a quality opponent in impressive fashion.
Here are our exclusive gameballs and goats from the Bills game against the Seahawks:
Gameballs
Positional Breakdown and Grades
NFL.com Gamebook
Seahawks Game Preview
Gameday Homepage
