Bills offense regresses in loss to the Saints

You know it’s not a great day when your only score comes on a pass from your punter to one of your defensive ends. And so it went for the Bills during Sunday’s 27-7 loss to New Orleans. On a fake field goal early in the second quarter, Brian Moorman tossed a 25-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Denney to tie the game at 7.

The Bills defense played well against the league’s most prolific offense until the fourth quarter when the Saints scored 17 points to put the game away.

The gallant effort by the “D’’ was wasted by the Bills offense, which struggled against a decent but not great Saints defense. Quarterback Drew Brees had entered the game with 9 TD passes in two outings, but was held without a scoring toss in the Ralph. He completed just 16-of-29 attempts for 172 yards, but the New Orleans running game (222 yards) and defense (four sacks, 14 quarterback hits) took up the slack.

Through three games, Buffalo’s dynamic duo of Terrell Owens and Lee Evans hasn’t been very dynamic. The two deep threats have managed a combined 13 receptions for 186 yards and two scores. There are two dozen receivers in the NFL this season who have more receiving yardage individually than Owens and Evans have combined. This has to change, and change in a hurry, or this Bills season is going to unravel before the leaves change colors.

Owens’ streak of 185 consecutive games with a reception – third longest in NFL history – came to an ignominious end vs. the Saints. Edwards threw to T.O. five times without a connection. He overthrew Owens in the fourth quarter on a fly pattern down the sideline that would have been a touchdown and also forced a ball to him that resulted in a deflection and interception by Will Smith.

Edwards clearly took a step backwards Sunday. He reverted to his Captain Checkdown mode where too many of his passes were of the short and medium range. Of course, he often was running for his life as the Saints defensive front exploited the Bills youthful offensive line.

Credit former Bills head coach, now Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams for making their lives miserable. He threw an array of blitzes at the Bills and neither their offensive line nor Edwards could handle them.