An 18-week season is an extremely long season. For the Buffalo Bills' defense, that could still be a good thing or a bad thing.
The Bills beat the New Orleans Saints rather handily on Sunday afternoon, at least on paper. But the journey to a 31-19 victory was not exactly the cleanest, especially defensively.
Bobby Babich's crew struggled on the ground against the Saints, allowing 14 rushing first downs and giving up 22 first downs on the afternoon overall. They were lucky to escape a clutch touchdown throw by Spencer Rattler, whose timing was slightly off on a wide-open play to Brandin Cooks. But nobody on the Bills is panicking, especially after a win.
Bills captain Terrel Bernard provides important context for current defensive struggles
Terrel Bernard on balancing defensive struggles amid a perfect 4-0 start to the season: “At the end of the day the goal is to win the game. Obviously we haven’t played to our standard. But it’s Week 4.” pic.twitter.com/tFlUfdU4yC
— alex brasky (@alexbrasky) September 28, 2025
The important thing to note here is that Bernard is anything but nonchalant or apathetic toward the struggles. But you get some important context here from him, acknowledging the important thing, which is that the team is winning.
A lot of teams wish they were in the same spot as the Bills right now.
In the NFL, you don't get extra points at the end of the season for winning "pretty". There are no rankings like there are in college football. You are what your record says you are at the end of the season, and for the Bills right now, nothing matters more than being 4-0.
Of course, on the other side of that coin, you want to see the defense play better. Buffalo's vaunted offense had fewer total first downs (20) than the Saints in this game, and they were fortunate the Saints weren't able to punch it in a couple more times than they did. The Bills' defense was bailed out by the aforementioned throw that was slightly off target, as well as an ill-timed attempt at a Philly Special by the Saints that was picked off by Cole Bishop.
Better offenses will see what the Saints put on tape in this one and try to exploit the Bills as the season goes along, but as we know, this Bills team can win a variety of different ways. And Josh Allen is fully capable of putting the team on his back.
At this point, it's fair to wonder if the Bills are doing a little too much flirting with disaster. They have the talent on their roster to be one of the most dominant teams in the league, which gives them plenty of margin for error, but you can't be lackadaisical or lack urgency in your approach. The defense needs to pick it up quickly.