Credit: Mark Konezny-Imagn Images
By Ross Jackson
After a 44-13 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, a 31-19 loss to the Buffalo Bills may not look great on paper for the New Orleans Saints. However, a deeper dive into the numbers shows how the Saints made some key adjustments and improvements in a game where the team truly needed to make a statement.
4 – The Saints committed the fewest accepted penalties of their season so far against Buffalo with just four. Three were on special teams, one on offense and none on defense. None of the penalties that were committed were pre-snap infractions.
4.86 – New Orleans rushers gained an average of 4.86 rushing yards after contact in Week 4, their highest average of the season.
24 – Rookie cornerback Quincy Riley saw 24 defensive snaps against the Bills, outpacing starter Isaac Yiadom (12). If this trend continues and Riley keeps impressing, he may become the starter.
25 – Defensive coordinator Brandon Staley did some new things on defense Sunday. Not the least of which being spending nearly 25% of his unit’s snaps in man coverage, the most in any game this year by a wide margin.
27 – New Orleans worked from under center a lot more than usual against Buffalo. After averaging around 14% of their offensive snaps under center through the first three games, the Saints deployed this look around 27% of the time in Week 4.
#Saints ran nearly 27% of their offensive plays against the Bills from under center.
Up from just around 14% from the first three weeks.
Players say it helped with:
Pre-snap communication
Penalties
Run game— Ross Jackson (@RossJacksonNOLA) September 28, 2025
70 – The Saints’ passing defense continues to give up high completion rates. For the third out of four games this season, New Orleans surrendered a completion percentage higher than 70%.
81 – Bills running back James Cook gained 117 rushing yards against the Saints’ defense. Per Next Gen Stats, 81 of those yards came from rushes between the tackles.
100 – Every opposing quarterback starter has notched a passer rating of better than 100 against the Saints’ defense this season.
- Arizona Cardinals’ Kyler Murray – 108.8
- San Francisco 49ers’ Mac Jones – 113.1
- Seattle Seahawks’ Sam Darnold – 154.2
- Buffalo Bills’ Josh Allen – 113.6
135 – Of the team’s 189 net rushing yards, 135 were picked up by running backs Alvin Kamara and Kendre Miller. A showing of promise for the tandem, around which the Saints should look to build their identity.
2012 – The Saints have started 0-4 for the first time since 2012. In the last 20 years, New Orleans has gotten off to a winless four-game start three times: 2025, 2012 and 2007.
