RENTON — Tyrod Taylor is a guy.

Tom Brady is “The Man.”

That’s the biggest concern among a few right now for the Seahawks.

The NFC West leaders (5-2-1) are going from holding off Taylor’s Buffalo Bills late for a win Monday night to facing Brady and his rolling New England Patriots (7-1) in Foxborough, Massachusetts, on Sunday night.

Yes, it’s Seattle’s heralded defense that’s currently a bigger issue than its running game. And that’s saying something. The Seahawks on Monday night gained its fewest yards rushing in a game (33) in more than five years — with just 10 yards by its two tailbacks combined — yet still beat Buffalo, 31-25.

In January, Seattle defense became the first to lead the NFL in fewest points allowed four consecutive seasons since the 1950s Cleveland Browns. Here in November, it is getting worn down. The Seahawks allowed Buffalo a 17-play drive for the Bills’ go-ahead touchdown in the first half Monday. That was the longest drive for points against Seattle since Dec. 1, 2011, when Philadelphia also marched 17 plays to score against it.

The Seahawks also allowed the Bills drives of 13 plays and 12 plays to score. They allowed the league’s 24th-ranked offense 425 yards — almost 100 yards more than the Bills had been averaging.

The reason? The defense suddenly can’t get off the field. It allowed Buffalo to convert 12 of 17 third downs, at 71 percent double the Bills’ usual success rate. That was the highest conversion rate on third down against Seattle in 74 games, since Detroit went 12 for 16 (75 percent) in its 28-24 win over the Seahawks Oct. 28, 2012.

In the last two games, Seattle has allowed New Orleans and Buffalo to convert 21 of 32 third downs (66 percent). That is a prime reason the Seahawks have allowed 50 points in their last two games.

Into the second quarter Monday, Seattle had allowed points on nine consecutive drives.

If things don’t change before Sunday night, Brady and the Patriots might light up Seattle more than Tyrod Taylor could ever dream to.

“We’ve definitely got to do a better job of getting off the field,” Seahawks middle linebacker Bobby Wagner said following their victory over Buffalo. “Third downs are big. We’ve got to take care of that.

“We coming away with a win, it’s always good. But there are a lot of things we can go back to (work on). Even giving up this many points — that shouldn’t happen.”

Wagner is doing his part. He had a career-high 16 tackles Monday. That was one more tackle than he had the week before in the 25-20 loss at New Orleans. He also had half a sack and three tackles behind the line of scrimmage against the Bills.

But many other defenders did not tackle, at least not as they normally do. Even end Cliff Avril, Seattle’s best, most consistent defender this season who has nine sacks in eight games, missed a tackle with Wagner on Buffalo running back LeSean McCoy in the second quarter. That turned a short catch near the line in the red zone into an 11-yard gain and a first down at the Seattle 8. The Bills took a 17-14 lead on a field goal four plays later.

“I thought our tackling was maybe the sloppiest it’s been,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “But, there’s nobody harder to tackle than ‘Shady’ McCoy. He’s the most elusive guy that plays in this game right now, in my opinion. And Tyrod Taylor is as hard of a guy as you can possibly play against at quarterback, to tackle.

“And those two guys, they made it hard on us (Monday). Our guys were trying, but it looked like a lot of slipping and sliding that we haven’t seen from our team. We don’t play those guys again for a while, so we’ll see. “

There are other factors that could explain why the defense has been uncharacteristically missing tackles and getting smacked more than doing the smacking.

Pro Bowl defensive end Michael Bennett has missed these last two games. He had arthroscopic knee surgery last week and is expected to miss perhaps two more games.

Four-time Pro Bowl strong safety Kam Chancellor has missed the last four games with a pulled groin. Carroll said following Monday’s game he expects Chancellor to play at New England.

Another possible factor, one Carroll isn’t acknowledging but at least one of his players is: fatigue.

The 800 yards, 50 points and 66 percent conversion rate on third downs the last two games have come since the grueling, 6-6 overtime Oct. 23 at Arizona. The defense played 95 snaps that night. Seattle’s entire secondary played every snap of that one. Strong safety Kelcie McCray, Chancellor’s replacement, played 108 snaps that night, including special teams. Wagner, cornerback Richard Sherman and many other starters needed intravenous fluids during and after that game. Sherman was shaking at his locker in Arizona and had medical personnel suggesting a stretcher for him to get to the team bus.

Monday, Seattle’s defense allowed Buffalo’s offense to run 86 snaps.

The last three games, Seattle’s D has been on the field for 123 of a possible 195 minutes — 63 percent of time. It was out there for 40:17 of the 60 minutes Monday. The Bills got to the 10-yard line in the final seconds before throwing an incomplete pass on fourth down to ensure Seattle’s win.

“Just empty, our bodies are on empty when we are out there,” tired-looking linebacker K.J. Wright said Monday at his locker after he played all 86 defensive snaps.

“But we just keep finding a way, we look at each others’ eyes and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got to get it done.’ That’s just something 20 years down the line we will remember just how special this team is. How much we care for each other. How much we just find a way to win.

“We preach grit all the time. It’s just something that’s special. It goes back to when they drafted us. They just pick certain guys that they know won’t give up, that they know will fight to the end.”

As Carroll said last week heading to the midpoint of the 16-game regular season: “It’s go time now.”

The last time the Seahawks faced Brady, he moved the Patriots up and down the field in Super Bowl 48 in Arizona 21 months ago.

But unlike Taylor Monday for Buffalo, Brady finished his long drives with the two, winning touchdowns in the fourth quarter to win the title.

“It’s going to be corrected. We’re not going to be out there as much as we go down this (home) stretch,” Wright said. “We are going to find a way to figure out how to get off the field on third down — and be a more dominant defense.”

Carroll, not surprisingly, had a positive view of the all the work the defense has had to put in these last few games.

“Our defensive guys have been thru so much challenge the last month,” the coach said Tuesday on his weekly day-after radio show on Seattle’s KIRO AM, “they are getting stronger.”

Sunday in New England, in one of the sternest tests the NFL has, we will all find out how true that is.