The Buffalo Bills look like Super Bowl contenders.
The New Orleans Saints look like contenders to have the first pick in next year’s draft.
One of the most lopsided-looking matchups of the young NFL season has the Saints (0-3) visiting the Bills (3-0) on Sunday in Orchard Park, N.Y.
Buffalo has scored more than 30 points in all three games this season, at least 30 in 12 of its last 14 regular-season games overall and its scoring average of 34 is fourth best in the league. One key reason for that success is that the Bills have not turned the ball over.
“Taking care of the football is my main job,” quarterback Josh Allen said, “(along with) scoring points and doing whatever I can do to not hurt ourselves and not put us in worse situations.”
The Bills are leading the league with averages of 420 yards per game and 163 rushing yards per game.
“Every play doesn’t need to be a home run,” Allen said. “But as long as we’re taking singles and finding completions and staying in front of the sticks and scoring points, you can’t argue with the results.”
Buffalo, which hasn’t played since a 31-21 home victory against Miami on Sept. 18, has won 13 consecutive regular-season home games.
One area where head coach Sean McDermott is looking for improvement is on third-down defense. The Bills have allowed a 43.2 percent conversion rate on third down, 10th highest in the league.
“It’s a good sign that we’re playing some good football on first and second down,” McDermott said. “We’re getting ourselves into some good third-down situations, but then there’s another level of the mentality that you’ve got to take into those third-down windows and situations, and then the execution that has to unfold in those as well.”
Buffalo’s 14 penalties are tied for the fewest in the league whereas New Orleans’ 31 penalties are tied for the most.
“We’ve got to play cleaner football,” Saints first-year head coach Kellen Moore said.
Many of the penalties have been pre-snap infractions committed by the offense, which has disrupted its timing.
“We can’t beat ourselves,” quarterback Spencer Rattler said.
New Orleans had opportunities to tie or take the lead late in the fourth quarter of home losses to Arizona (20-13) and San Francisco (26-21) to start the season. However, in the first road game of the season last week, the Saints fell behind Seattle 21-0 after less than 11 minutes and trailed 38-3, allowing the most first-half points in franchise history, before losing 44-13.
“We can’t go out and do what we did last week and expect to win,” Rattler said. “But guys aren’t moping around, and nobody has their head down. We’ve got to attack it. Everybody’s dialed in. We know we have to play at a higher level.”
Three Bills starters missed practice Wednesday — right tackle Spencer Brown (calf), defensive tackle Ed Oliver (ankle) and linebacker Matt Milano (pectoral).
Saints starting left guard Trevor Penning, who has yet to play this season because of a toe injury suffered in the preseason opener, practiced fully Wednesday. Dillon Radunz (toe), who has been Penning’s primary backup, did not practice, nor did starting defensive end Chase Young, who has yet to play because of a calf injury.
