Who dat? Saints dominate Bills behind record-setting run game
The New Orleans Saints won their seventh straight game on Sunday, on the road in Buffalo, and unlike so many games in recent years, they didn’t have to do it behind the right arm of Drew Brees.
New Orleans posted a franchise-record six rushing touchdowns and nearly broke the franchise record for rushing yards in a game, with 298, whipping the Bills, 47-10.
Brees, who came into the day averaging 277 passing yards per game this season, only had to pass for 184 yards.
The Saints’ surprising defense has gotten a fair bit of attention this season and rightfully so, but the combination of rookie Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram have been a boon to the team’s offense. Coming into Sunday, New Orleans was seventh in the league with 982 rushing yards; last year, the Saints were 16th in the NFL in rushing yards, and two years ago they were 24th.
The last time New Orleans finished top-10 in team rushing yards for a season was 2011, when it was sixth. The Saints were 13-3 that season.
Against the Bills (whose defense, which earlier in the season was playing excellent, has taken a step back in recent weeks), Ingram rushed for 131 yards and three scores on just 21 carries, and Kamara had 106 rushing yards plus 32 receiving yards. He also had a touchdown on the ground.
Undrafted rookie Trey Edmunds, getting carries late in the game, totaled 48 yards, most of them coming on a 41-yard touchdown run, his first career score.
Brees accounted for the sixth rushing touchdown, a 7-yarder in the third quarter.
New Orleans ended the game with 24 consecutive run plays.
There was one negative on the day for the Saints: midway through the second quarter, second-year running back Daniel Lasco was seriously injured on kickoff coverage. Lasco remained down on the field for several minutes, but did move slightly. The ambulance was brought onto the field, Lasco was loaded onto a stretcher, and he was taken to a nearby hospital. He gave a thumbs-up to his teammates, who had gathered around him, as he was put into the ambulance.
The team told reporters during the game that Lasco has a spine injury, but he “has feeling in his extremities and Saints team doctor Michael Hartman is attending to him at the hospital.”
In his postgame news conference, coach Sean Payton said, “All the signs are positive” when asked about the status of Lasco.
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