The Buffalo Bills host the New Orleans Saints this weekend as huge favorites overall. Buffalo is a two-score favorite for the second straight week, as they are -15.5 in many places this weekend after being -12.5 last week against the Miami Dolphins. Of course, that game was much closer than that throughout, but the Bills ultimately prevailed in a 31-21 victory.<\/p>\n
The last time the Bills and the Saints met in Orchard Park, NY, it wasn\u2019t a good day for the home team. Buffalo was absolutely demolished by the Saints, losing 47-10 in a game that went so poorly that head coach Sean McDermott thought starting Nathan Peterman the following week would be a good idea. While current starting quarterback Josh Allen isn\u2019t going to lose his starting gig any time soon, the Bills would love to avoid dropping a contest against a team that, at least on paper, should not be able to stick with them on Sunday.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a reason they play the games, though: On any given Sunday, anything is possible. The Bills will need big-time efforts from their big-time players. Here are five players to watch this week.<\/p>\n
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Call this one a hunch. James Cook, Buffalo\u2019s top dog in the backfield, has carried it a lot thus far. He\u2019s averaging 18 carries per game, well above the 11 carries per game he averaged over the last three seasons. The Bills definitely want the ball in his hands, but it wouldn\u2019t surprise me if they gave him a few extra breathers this weekend, especially if the score is out of hand.<\/p>\n
While Ray Davis is a likely beneficiary of a lopsided game, Johnson has been RB2 in terms of usage this season. Johnson is dynamic in the passing game and the running game, and it wouldn\u2019t surprise me if he saw a few extra touches this weekend.<\/p>\n
Last week, the rookie caught his first career touchdown. This week, perhaps he\u2019ll make it his first multi-catch game. He\u2019s caught exactly one pass in each game while serving as a fantastic extra blocker in the first three games of his career.<\/p>\n
Hawes has added an element to the offense that wasn\u2019t there last year, as he blocks like Alec Anderson, but he can actually run routes and catch passes. He\u2019s a bit like a more athletic version of Lee Smith, another No. 85 whose main purpose was as a blocker. Hawes will have more than one catch this week, and he may even score another touchdown.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll list Brown first, but if he can\u2019t go thanks to his calf injury, then all eyes will shift to Ryan Van Demark. Whoever it is at right tackle, he\u2019ll need to be sharp, as the Bills can\u2019t afford to let their MVP quarterback take unnecessary shots. The easiest way to lose a game against a team you\u2019re favored against is to fail to protect the quarterback, so Buffalo needs to be sure to avoid that fate.<\/p>\n
Brown has been excellent, but he\u2019s dealing with a variety of ailments, including a back issue and this calf injury. Van Demark was great in his one start last year, a 26-17 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. Either way, the Bills likely feel confident in their offensive line, though they\u2019d certainly love to have their starting five available to them.<\/p>\n
Alright, Groot, it\u2019s time to show up on the stat sheet. Last week, Rousseau had just one tackle. He has half a sack on the season so far with just five total tackles and one quarterback hit in three games. However, a re-watch of the game shows that Rousseau was still affecting the passing game even without notching stats. He put pressure on quarterback Tua Tagovailoa on multiple plays, but he just couldn\u2019t take him down.<\/p>\n
This week, he\u2019ll need to be disciplined in his rush lanes against New Orleans quarterback Spencer Rattler, who is fairly mobile. I\u2019d love to see Rousseau end up with a multi-sack effort this week, and against a New Orleans club that has allowed six sacks so far this season and currently has three offensive linemen nursing injury, it\u2019s a good week for it to happen.<\/p>\n
Speaking of guys who could use a big game, how about Buffalo\u2019s second-year safety notches his first career interception this weekend? After what was a pretty disastrous first game of the season, Bishop\u2019s play has evened out some over the last two weeks. He hasn\u2019t made glaring mistakes, but he hasn\u2019t made a game-changing play yet, either.<\/p>\n
The Bills have a knack for turnovers, and while linebacker Terrel Bernard has been the man in that department this season, Bishop\u2019s athleticism has to translate at some point. Rattler has thrown just one interception this season. As my dad would say, \u201che\u2019s due.\u201d Let\u2019s see if Bishop can step up and make a splash on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Buffalo Bills host the New Orleans Saints this weekend as huge favorites overall. Buffalo is a two-score…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[4424,7,896,55,2572,2571,6,397],"class_list":{"0":"post-401659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-buffalo-bills-discussion","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-new-orleans","11":"tag-new-orleans-saints","12":"tag-neworleans","13":"tag-neworleanssaints","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-saints"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115277676266752991","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}