Seahawks hoping to contain Bills high-scoring offense

Buffalo (5-2) at Seattle (4-3)

Sunday, 4:05 p.m. EDT, Fox

BetMGM NFL Odds: Bills by 3

Series record: Seahawks lead 8-6

Against the spread: Bills 4-3, Seahawks 2-4-1

Last meeting: Bills beat Seahawks 44-34 on Nov. 8, 2020.

Last week: Bills beat Titans 34-10; Seahawks beat Falcons 34-14

Bills offense: overall (18), rush (19), pass (18), scoring (5)

Bills defense: overall (20), rush (20), pass (17), scoring (8)

Seahawks offense: overall (8), rush (27), pass (1), scoring (8)

Seahawks defense: overall (21), rush (28), pass (14), scoring (19)

Turnover differential: Bills plus-10, Seahawks minus-3

Amari Cooper. The newly acquired wide receiver has an opportunity to build on his four-catch, 66-yard, 1 TD debut against Tennessee on Sunday, five days after being traded by Cleveland. The 30-year-old quickly showed glimpses of chemistry with Allen and a sure-handed ability in dropping just one pass — something Cooper uncharacteristically struggled with in his first six games with the Browns.

RB Kenneth Walker III. Walker had 69 yards on 14 carries last week despite battling an illness, with one rushing and one receiving touchdown.

Seattle is trying to get Walker the ball more following a two-week span where he wasn’t much of a factor on offense and if he feels fully healthy the Seahawks can take advantage of a Bills defense that gives up an average of 132.9 rushing yards per game.

Amari Cooper vs. Seattle secondary. Riq Woolen looks likely to play after sitting out the past two games with an injury, but Tre Brown did not practice Wednesday. If Brown is out, Josh Jobe and Nehemiah Pritchett would step in at cornerback. Jobe had six tackles against the Falcons.

Seahawks WR DK Metcalf did not practice Wednesday and is questionable to play after he suffered a MCL sprain against the Falcons. The Seahawks don’t expect it to be a long-term injury. … Woolen (ankle) might return this week after missing the past two games. … CB Tre Brown (ankle) missed last week’s game and is questionable for Sunday. … Bills starting LB Terrel Bernard’s status bears monitoring after hurting his ankle last weekend. The same goes with WR Curtis Samuel, who was sidelined Sunday by what the Bills call a pectoral injury. Both players did not practice Wednesday, though Bernard was excused for personal reasons. ... TE Dalton Kincaid (collarbone) should play after being listed on the injury report for a second straight week. ... RB Darrynton Evans is a candidate to be activated off injured reserve after practicing fully on Wednesday.

The Bills and Seahawks have only played three times since 2012, and Seattle is 2-1 in those matchups. … The first meeting came on Oct. 30, 1977. The Seahawks won, 56-17. … The teams last faced off in Seattle on Nov. 7, 2016. … The Bills' most recent win in Seattle came on Nov. 28, 2004, when they beat the Seahawks 38-9. … Josh Allen threw for 415 yards and three touchdowns in the Bills’ most recent meeting with Seattle in 2020, making him the first player in the Super Bowl era to throw for 400-plus yards, three touchdowns, zero interceptions, and at least a 130 passer rating more than once in a season.

The Seahawks need four more wins to reach 400 victories in franchise history. … QB Geno Smith needs one more 300-yard game to tie Matt Hasselbeck for second for most 300-yard games in a season in franchise history with four. … Smith also needs 74 attempts to pass Rick Mirer for fifth place on Seattle’s passing attempts list with 1,524, and ranks in fifth in completions (982), passing yards (10,626) and passing touchdowns (63). … Smith has thrown at least one touchdown pass in each of his past 11 games, going back to last season. … Walker needs two touchdowns to pass Chris Carson for sixth on Seattle’s rushing touchdowns list with 25. … LB’s Derick Hall and Boye Mafe have combined for nine sacks this season, with Hall contributing five and Mafe contributing four. ... The Seahawks are one of five teams with two players that each have at least four sacks. … Seattle’s defense forced three turnovers against the Falcons, after combing for just one over the previous five games. … Metcalf needs 142 receiving yards to pass Steve Largent for the most in a player’s first six seasons in franchise history with 6,042. … Metcalf also needs one receiving touchdown to pass Largent for the most in a player’s first six seasons in franchise history with 47, and ranks first in franchise history for the most receptions in a player’s first six seasons with 407. … Allen, coming off his 26th 300-yard outing, had 415 in his only meeting against Seattle, a 44-34 home win on Nov. 8, 2020. ... Allen is the NFL’s only starter to not throw an interception this season after getting picked off a career-high 18 times last season. He joins Kansas City’s Alex Smith (2017) in becoming the NFL’s second quarterback to throw at least 12 TDs (Smith had 15) and no interceptions through the first seven games of a season. ... Allen is 29-5 when not committing a turnover and 39-27 in a game with a giveaway ... With 125 yards receiving, WR Keon Coleman became Buffalo’s first player to top 100 this year. His yardage total was the most by a Bills rookie since Sammy Watkins had 127 in 2014. ... The Bills had lost nine straight when finishing with under 100 yards rushing before finishing with 74 against Tennessee. ... The Bills are 15-3 when topping 100 yards rushing since the start of the 2023 season. ... Buffalo leads the NFL with a plus-10 turnover differential, with Allen’s two lost fumbles accounting for the team’s two giveaways. The defense has forced at last one turnover in each of its first seven games — Buffalo’s best streak to start a season since an eight-game run in 2007. ... Edge rusher Von Miller is eligible to return next week after serving the fourth and final game of his NFL-issued suspension for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy.

If Metcalf is unable to play on Sunday, the Seahawks will look to their other receiving options to fill the void. Lockett sees plenty of attention already, but players such as Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Jake Bobo and Laviska Shenault could see some added passes.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen (17) celebrates a touchdown during the second half of an NFL football game against the Tennessee Titans, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott looks onto the field during the second half of an NFL football game against the Tennessee Titans, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Jeffrey T. Barnes)

Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald looks on from the sideline during the second half of an NFL football game agains the Atlanta Falcons, Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Seattle Seahawks linebacker Derick Hall (58) celebrates with Tyrel Dodson (0) after returning a fumble for a touchdown during the second half of an NFL football game against the Atlanta Falcons , Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

RENO, Nev. (AP) — For the first time under President Joe Biden, a federal permit for a new lithium mine has been approved for a Nevada project essential to his clean energy agenda, despite conservationists' vows to sue over the plan, which they say will drive an endangered wildflower to extinction.

Ioneer Ltd.'s mine will help expedite production of a key mineral in the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles at the center of Biden's push to cut greenhouse gas emissions, administration officials said Thursday in Reno.

Acting Deputy Interior Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis said it's "essential to advancing the clean energy transition and powering the economy of the future.”

“The process we have undertaken demonstrates that we can pursue responsible critical mineral development here in the United States, while protecting the health of our public lands and resources," she said.

In the works for six years, construction of the Rhyolite Ridge mine should start next year in the high desert halfway between Reno and Las Vegas, the Australia-based Ioneer said.

Production is scheduled to begin in 2028 at the mine, which should produce enough lithium for 370,000 vehicles annually for more than two decades, officials said. Worldwide demand for lithium is projected to have grown six times by 2030 compared to 2020.

“I can say with absolute confidence there are few deposits in the world as impactful as Rhyolite Ridge,” Ioneer Executive Chairman James Calaway said Thursday.

“Today’s approval of Ioneer’s federal permit is the culmination of countless hours of work and a testament to our remarkable team’s dedication to developing and building one of the most sustainable mining projects in the country,” he said

The Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management issued the permit after the Fish and Wildlife Service concluded — in consultation with the bureau required under the Endangered Species Act — that the mine would not jeopardize the survival of Tiehm's buckwheat.

The service added the 6-inch-tall (15-centimeter-tall) wildflower with yellow and cream-colored blooms to the list of U.S. endangered species on Dec. 14, 2022, citing mining as the biggest threat to its survival.

The bureau initiated the mine's permitting process five days later. The agencies say Ioneer's subsequent changes to the mine's footprint alleviated concerns about potential harm to the flower.

Environmentalists said Thursday that the mine's final approval was a politically motivated violation of multiple U.S. laws. The Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement that “litigation is now the only way to stop the Rhyolite Ridge Mine.”

“We need lithium for the energy transition, but it can’t come with a price tag of extinction,” said Patrick Donnelly, the center's Great Basin director. He said Biden's administration “ is abandoning its duty to protect endangered species like Tiehm’s buckwheat and it’s making a mockery of the Endangered Species Act."

Fewer than 30,000 of the plants remain in Nevada at the only place they're known to exist in the world across eight sub-populations that combined cover 10 acres (4 hectares) — an area equal to the size of about eight football fields.

USFWS said the project — including the infrastructure and waste rock dump — will come within 15 feet (5 meters) of the buckwheat and result in the loss of some of its designated critical habitat that is home to neighboring bees and other pollinators integral to its reproduction.

But the service said the operation will cause no direct disturbance to individual plants and that reclamation, mitigation and monitoring promised in the blueprint should provide necessary protections for it to coexist with the open pit mine deeper than the length of a football field.

Opponents of the project say it’s the latest example of Biden’s administration running roughshod over U.S. protections for native wildlife, rare species and sacred tribal lands in the name of slowing climate change by reducing reliance on fossil fuels and bolstering national security by easing reliance on foreign sources of critical minerals.

“We’ve been fighting to save Tiehm’s buckwheat for six years and we’re not giving up now," Donnelly said.

Nevada is home to the only existing lithium mine in the U.S. Another is currently under construction near the Oregon line 220 miles (354 kilometers) north of Reno. That Lithium Americas mine at Thacker Pass, which was approved in the final days of former President Donald Trump's administration, survived numerous legal challenges from environmentalists and Native American tribes who said it would destroy lands they considered sacred where their ancestors were massacred by U.S. troops in 1865.

FILE - Tiehm's buckwheat grows in a greenhouse in Gardnerville, Nevada, Tuesday, May 21, 2024. The endangered desert wildflower stands in the way of a mining company's plans to dig for lithium to help speed production of batteries for electric cars and other green energy projects. (AP Photo/Scott Sonner, File)