Judgment by Keon Coleman, the luck of the Bills and the AFC East

Keon Coleman's big plays were the most significant piece of good news for Buffalo. We expected the defense to have a strong game against a subpar Seattle offense. The first four did their job. We expected James Cook to add yards to a Seattle defense that ranked 28th in yards per attempt allowed.

However, Coleman continued his upward trend. His touchdown came against a capable starting cornerback, Riq Woolen, who was having a good season. Coleman's ball over the rim for 21 yards late in the third quarter was a great play. Then, in the fourth quarter, Coleman beat Woolen's press coverage attempt with a nifty juke from the line of scrimmage, and Woolen had no choice but to tackle him for a pass interference foul.

After making five catches for 70 yards, Coleman is now on pace for 841 receiving yards. That would be outstanding for a rookie. Fourth grader Gabe Davis had 746 last season.

To the Bills' credit, they started quickly on both offense and defense and eventually put the game's “script” into action. Stay on schedule on offense and play with an edge on defense.

Still, this game could have been much tougher for the Bills, who were without star linebacker Terrel Bernard. The Seahawks were without star wide receiver DK Metcalf. Clear advantage for Buffalo.

Then Seattle wasted two possessions at the goal line with colossal mistakes. Connor Williams shot the ball a foot over Geno Smith's head in the first period. Williams stepped on Smith's foot for a 6-yard loss on the next possession and a turnover on downs.

Unless Seattle makes a mistake, the score will likely be 14-14 at halftime. The Bills are better than the Seahawks. Given how the second half went, the Bills still played well enough to beat Seattle. But things thwarted Buffalo's path to making this much easier than it could have been.

It was a great day in the NFL for the Bills as the Jets, Dolphins, Ravens and Bengals all lost.

The Jets' (2-6) loss to struggling New England was New York's fifth in a row. It's impossible for the Jets to reach 10 wins despite all their talent. It's hard to imagine Miami (2-5) or New England (2-6) reaching 10 wins. None of them are allowed to achieve nine wins. It's hard to imagine the Bills winning the AFC East with four games left in the regular season.

The next step for Buffalo is to put a nail in the Dolphins' coffin next week. Then the Bills have a chance to fight for a place among the top two teams in the AFC despite their losses to Baltimore (5:3) and Houston (6:2). At this point, the Bills would actually benefit from the Jets beating Houston on Thursday night.