The New Orleans Saints (0-3) play the Buffalo Bills (3-0) on Sunday at Highmark Stadium. The Saints are looking to snap a seven-game losing streak dating to last season. Here are four factors that will determine if they can.
Flush Seattle
The Saints are coming off an embarrassing 44-13 road loss to the Seattle Seahawks. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. So the first thing Kellen Moore has to do is make sure his team has put that one in the rearview mirror. They can’t let what happened last week spill over. Buffalo’s Highmark Stadium, much like Seattle’s Lumen Field, is a hostile environment. The Saints will have to block out the noise of Bill Mafia, as well as the outside noise that followed last week’s loss. The Saints need to try to show that the Week 3 performance was just a fluke.
Slow the potent offense
The Saints probably won’t face an offense as good as this one all season long. There aren’t many quarterbacks in the league quite like Josh Allen, last season’s MVP. Allen can hurt you with his arm and his legs. His ability to extend plays when they break down is a defensive coordinator’s worst nightmare. His top targets are Opelousas native Keon Coleman and tight end Dalton Kincaid. If that’s not enough, the Bills boast the league’s top rushing game, averaging 163 yards per game on the ground. James Cook is averaging 94.7 yards per game. It’ll be a long day if the Saints defense can’t get off the field.
Win the turnover battle
This one may be just as challenging as slowing down Allen. The Bills have won or tied the turnover battle in 25 consecutive games, including the playoffs. They are 16-4 when they have won the turnover battle and 3-2 when it’s even. The problem is the Bills rarely turn the ball over (zero turnovers this season). The Saints, meanwhile, have turned it over just twice. If they can somehow keep the turnover battle pretty even, they have a much better chance of pulling off what would be the NFL’s biggest upset so far this season.
The details
Believe it or not, the Saints have won their last four trips to Buffalo. That includes a 47-10 beatdown in 2017 when the Saints rushed for six touchdowns. But in order for the Saints to make it five straight, they can’t be sloppy. Their 31 penalties lead the league. The 15 pre-snap penalties ranks second in the NFL. The Bills don’t hurt themselves. They’ve committed just 14 penalties, tops in the league. And of course, the Saints’ sloppy special-teams play from last week can’t happen again or this one will get even uglier than last week. The Saints have to play a clean game to have a chance.