The New Orleans Saints didn't leave Buffalo with a win, but they did come away with positives in a 31-19 defeat against the heavily favored Bills.
Probably the most clear high point: An effective rushing attack that rolled up 189 yards on 34 carries (5.6 yards per carry) and featured strong days for both Alvin Kamara and Kendre Miller. Continuing to utilize that tandem effectively will be vital for the Saints going forward, as Saints head coach Kellen Moore broke down to Mike Hoss and Bobby Hebert on WWL Radio this week.
“It’s a 1-2 punch, when both of those guys are rolling," Moore said, "I think we’ve got a great setup there."
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Miller's 11 carries for 65 yards marked his highest output since the finale of the 2023 season, and his 18-yard touchdown that featured two broken tackles was the longest scoring run of his career. More importantly the young RB has been able to stay on the field and build confidence throughout camp and the first month of the season, the first time he's been able to say that in his NFL career.
The extra time on task and consistency is showing up, and coaches have taken notice.
"I was really happy for Kendre," Moore continued. "I was fired up for him. He’s done so much good stuff through this whole entire offseason program, early in this year."
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It was the first time this year that the Saints finished a game with more rushing attempts than passing attempts, though they'll have to prove they can keep that efficiency against teams that don't rank toward the bottom of the league in that category. The Bills entered the game with the most average rushing yards allowed per game (156) and the Saints only helped to tick that number upward.
"I think we’ve talked about that the last few weeks, how can we keep getting more rush opportunities, and we were able to play that game with much more opportunities there," Moore said. "So both of those guys were able to get touches and I thought it was a really positive thing for us.”
More from Moore
Thoughts on the result
“I thought there was progress made, but ultimately the main goal was not achieved, so we’re close, making progress but ultimately we’re not there yet. We had our opportunities in that game. That was the beauty of it. We were right there, we’re competing with one of the best in the league and we just weren’t able to finish it and get it done.”
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On the missed tackles
“I believe our tally … we had 13 missed tackles, they had 11 and so we had a couple more than them and their back was able to make some longer yardage gains because of that. ... The one that sticks out is the big long run, the 43-yarder when, you Shakir catches the ball out in the flat and we’ve got multiple missed tackles there and he creates a touchdown out of a play that should’ve been knocked down for a couple yard gain, so we’ve got some opportunities there that we need to improve on.”
Rattler's running
“With where our offense is going, I think you can start with I thought the run game made some really good progress. I thought it was awesome by our guys, we ran the football well. You’re creating play action opportunities and I think one goal of ours is to get downfield and create more downfield throws because we know the talent that our perimeter guys have in that game. We tried that, Spencer ultimately scrambled in a couple of those opportunities and I thought they were really good decisions by him. The defense is getting a ton of depth aand he’s able to escape the pocket and get some really good gains, so I thought there were some really good opportunities that Spence was able to take advantage of there.”