Here are three matchups to watch when the Seattle Seahawks visit the Bills on Sunday.
D.K. Metcalf vs. Tre’Davious White. Metcalf is 6-3, 229 and runs a 4.33-second 40. White is 5-11, 192 and runs 4.47. Metcalf abused Niners 5-11 CB Emmanuel Mosley last week. Metcalf went against him on 24 of 39 routes and caught seven passes for 120 yards and two TDs. In Week 2, Metcalf beat Stephon Gilmore for a 54-yard touchdown. The Pats played man coverage vs. Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and he beat them for five TD passes. Don’t expect the Bills to play man across the board, but history suggests White will follow Metcalf around. The other option is to let White follow Tyler Lockett around and then bracket Metcalf with a safety over the top.
(Here's Metcalf beating Gilmore on a deep over route for the 54-yard TD.)
(Lockett tends to see big cushions on the other side of the field, opposite Metcalf. Here's an example against Arizona.)
Seattle OL vs. Bills DL. The Seahawks like big, beefy people movers on the offensive line that Wilson calls, "The Fun Five." Left tackle Duane Brown is 315, left guard Jordan Simmons is 339, center Ethan Pocic is 320, right guard Damien Lewis is 330 and right tackle Brandon Shell is 325. Seattle definitely will be without No. 2 RB Carlos Hyde and No. 1 Chris Carson. The Bills must shut down the run game if they want to have any chance to slow down Wilson. Seattle’s guards aren’t as good moving laterally in pass protection. So some twists are in order to get them moving side to side. Asked what's going so well with the offensive line, Wilson said, "Everything."
Jamal Adams vs. Josh Allen. The Bills know Adams well from his time with the Jets the past three years. He’s a heat-seeking missile and a versatile chess piece, with the ability to play deep or blitz. Seattle had him rush the passer 11 times in each of the first two games. He produced eight pressures and two sacks. Adams has missed the last four games with a groin injury. Seattle’s defensive MO is Cover 3, going back to the Legion of Boom days. They’ve blitzed at a 20% to 23% rate the previous three years (lower half of the NFL). But their edge rushing hasn’t been great. They blitzed Atlanta’s Matt Ryan and Dallas’ Dak Prescott a lot. They blitzed Arizona’s Kyler Murray on only 4 of 52 dropbacks. Hard to tell how they’ll treat Josh Allen. But you can bet they will attack with Adams, even if it's part of a four-man zone dog, not a five-man blitz. Said coach Pete Carroll last week: “One of you guys told me that Jamal had pressured, like, 10 times in the first two games, each. Well, that’s where we started. ... With Jamal coming back next week, it’s going to happen some more. You’ll see that happen as we enter him back in.”
