Welcome everyone to the latest edition of #4Downs where I break down what went right and what wrong for the New Orleans Saints! This week, we look at the Saints big win over the Buffalo Bills.
1st Down: Run Game Domination
Heading into Sunday afternoon, Buffalo had one of the better run defenses allowing 99.4 rushing yards per game. The Saints blew that out the water with 298 yards on the ground, including one drive that featured 10 straight run plays.
It was smart play calling for the Saints because they were able to keep the Bills defense out there and chew up a lot of the clock. The time of possession was impressive for New Orleans with a little over two-thirds of the ballgame spent holding the ball. If they can get even close to that, the Saints will be winning a lot more ballgames.
2nd Down: Defense Continues to Dominate
The defensive effort has gotten better week after week and Sunday was no different. Prior to Buffalo’s final drive of the ballgame, the Bills only got 5 first downs and went 2-for-11 on third downs.
The front seven kept things going, wreaking havoc and forcing Tyrod Taylor to beat them on the ground. Another big positive for this defense was not allowing the Bills to capitalize on any mistakes. After Josh Hill fumbled in the redzone, the defense forced them to punt the ball away.
When the team looks at the film, there won’t be a whole lot of criticisms further proving that the Saints defense has been the biggest reason why they’ve just won seven straight.
3rd Down: Another Nearly Complete Game
While it was a great all-around game, there were a couple of mistakes that caused this to fall short of that “perfect game” that Drew Brees has talked about in recent weeks. One of the biggest is obviously the Josh Hill fumble. While it didn’t change the end result in any way, it’s another turnover for the Saints that could’ve been avoided.
The last three weeks, there’s been at least one fumble by the offense and it’s seemingly become an epidemic for a team that had phenomenal ball control through the first four games of the season.
4th Down: The Saints Are Starting to Look for Real
When you look at the bulk of the Saints seven wins, they’re against teams that have been handcuffed with inexperienced QBs or banged up quarterbacks. That’s forced the front seven to exploit that weakness to give the offense more opportunities to deliver a knockout blow.
However, this game showed that the Saints are starting to look like a legitimate contender in an interesting NFC. However, these next two games are going to be a true test when they host the Redskins and travel to Los Angeles to face off against the high-powered offense against the Rams. A lot of things are possible for this team right now and it’s almost a lock that for the first time in four seasons, they won’t be finishing 7-9. That kind of end result could very well keep the duo of Brees and Payton around for just a little bit longer.
-Clint Domingue