Welcome everyone to the latest game preview for the New Orleans Saints! This week, we look at the Saints road trip to Buffalo to take on the Bills.
Last Week: The Saints extended their win streak to six with a convincing 30-10 victory at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bills had a rough go of things last Thursday against the New York Jets, falling 34-21.
Last Meeting: The last time these two teams faced off was on October 27th, 2013 with the Saints winning 35-17 in the Mercedes Benz-Superdome. The Saints holds the overall series lead 6-4 and has won the last four matchups against the Bills.
Storylines to Watch:
Stingy Run Defense: One of the best things that the Saints have had this season is a more consistent run game with a good 1-2 punch in Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram. That run game will have a pretty tough test in front of them with the Bills defense. Through eight games, Buffalo has allowed 94.3 rushing yards per game this season, good enough for eighth in the league.
The Saints offense has been a well-oiled machine thanks to that run game, but if we see the Bills defense stifle Kamara and Ingram, that could force Drew Brees to get this team to a win largely by himself. It’s been done before, but once an offense becomes one-dimensional it makes it easier for a defense to make adjustments.
Ball Control Needs to Improve: It seems obvious, but it needs to be said, the Saints have gotten incredibly lucky when it comes to their turnovers. Just in last week, the Saints gave up two fumbles and thankfully, the Buccaneers were only able to get seven points.
Imagine if the Saints commit some turnovers against the higher level teams that are still on the schedule like the Washington Redskins and the Los Angeles Rams. This might be the last chance the Saints have to clean up this issue before the real difficult part of the schedule.
Front Seven Bringing Pressure: The Saints defense has been a pleasant surprise this season, especially with how the front seven has performed. While the numbers don’t pop off the game books, they’re getting at the quarterback with a lot more frequency and causing some disruptions on the field.
The Bills offensive line looked like a sieve last week with Tyrod Taylor getting sacked seven times. If the defense can get close to those kind of numbers, make it seven straight for the black and gold.
New Orleans Will Win If:
The Saints can get their seventh in a row if they can keep the ball in their hands. In each of the last two games, they’ve coughed up the ball twice, the ball control needs to be there this week.
Another big point of emphasis needs to be finding out where the Bills run defense is weakest. If you find that, start exploiting it until they fix it.
Buffalo Will Win If:
It’ll be a bit of an uphill climb for the Bills, but they can get a big win if Taylor can be kept vertical. However, that’s easier said than done with defenses feasting on the poor offensive line this season with 26. He’ll need to use more of that mobility to keep some plays alive on Sunday.
-Clint Domingue