Saints enjoy themselves in blowout of Bills
New Orleans extends win streak to seven games after starting season 0-2
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y.— Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara are so in sync, the New Orleans Saints running back duo is now finishing sentences for one another.
“Listen, it’s fun whenever we’re scoring at will,” Ingram said, before sounding like Oprah on a giveaway episode following a 47-10 win over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.
“Drew (Brees) got a touchdown. A.K. (Kamara) got a touchdown. Trey (Edmunds) got a touchdown. Man, that’s what we work for, so everybody eats.”
That’s when Kamara interjected by noting to Ingram, “You don’t want to say you got three touchdowns,” before the two broke into a fit of laughter.
Ingram had 131 yards rushing and scored three times, and the Saints won their seventh straight in producing one of the most prolific running performances in franchise history. The six touchdowns rushing set a franchise record, and New Orleans’ 298 yards rushing were the third highest in team history.
“We came out and wanted to impose our will,” said Kamara, who scored once and added 106 yards rushing. “We were in the locker room and said, ‘We’ve got to put pressure on them to break their neck.’ ”
Ingram set a career high by scoring twice from three yards and another from one yard. Kamara scored on a five-yard run, while Brees scrambled in from seven yards. Edmunds capped the run of rushing touchdowns with a 41-yard scamper.
The 7-2 Saints became the second team in the Super Bowl era to win seven straight after starting the season 0-2, joining the 1993 Cowboys, who went on to beat Buffalo in winning the Super Bowl.
The Bills, now 5-4, so completely unravelled on defence, linebacker Preston Brown didn’t know what hit them.
“That felt like the longest game of my life,” Brown told The Associated Press. “Every time they ran the ball: eight yards. Every time they passed the ball:15, 20 yards. Nothing worked today.”
It marked the second straight game the Bills defence has caved after allowing 194 yards rushing in a 34-21 loss to the New York Jets on Nov. 2.
“It’s two straight times where you get embarrassed,” Brown said. “And it has to change or we’ll be five and what, 5-11, if we don’t make a change.”
Buffalo fell to 4-1 at home and squandered an opportunity to win six of its first nine games for the first time since 1999.
The offence was hardly better. Buffalo managed 198 yards, and 10 first downs. And five of those first downs came on Buffalo’s meaningless final drive that ended with backup quarterback Nathan Peterman hitting Nick O’Leary on a seven-yard touchdown pass.
“Horrible game,” said Bills QB Tyrod Taylor said, who finished 9 of 18 for 56 yards and an interception.
Kelvin Benjamin, like much of the rest of the Bills offence, was rendered invisible in making his debut after being acquired in a trade with Carolina on Oct. 31. He finished with three catches for a team-best 42 yards.
After the game, Saints coach Sean Payton said “all the signs are positive” in updating the status of backup running back Daniel Lasco, who had feelings in his extremities after sustaining a spine injury while tackling Brandon Tate on a kickoff return six minutes into the second quarter. Lasco was loaded into an ambulance and transported to a Buffalo-area hospital.
The Saints were awaiting the results of a final test before learning whether Lasco could join them on their flight home.