Saints-Bills instant analysis: What went right, what went wrong in Week 4?

Some losses are easier to stomach than others. At least we can say the New Orleans Saints showed some fight in Sunday's loss to the Buffalo Bills, a 31-19 defeat that felt much closer than that final score would suggest. Of course there's only so much solace you can take from that. The Saints are 0-4 through Kellen Moore's first four games as head coach. Spencer Rattler is now 0-10 as a starting quarterback. Moral victories are better than nothing, but you have to get in the win column some day.

So how did we get here? Let's recap the game by answering three key questions.

• What went wrong?
• What went right?
• What's the bottom line?

What went wrong?

Brandon Staley's pass defense was not up to the task of slowing down Josh Allen. Whether it was Isaac Yiadom or even Kool-Aid McKinstry getting challenged downfield, too often Allen and his receivers came out ahead. But the defensive issues went beyond those too-easy completions. The Saints missed a lot of tackles on Sunday. Pete Werner and Alontae Taylor were repeat offenders at the second level of the field, but so was rookie safety Jonas Sanker (who gave up a long touchdown early on), despite his interception later on. That's fundamental.

Offensively, Spencer Rattler's inability to connect on passes downfield again stood out. That's inexcusable with established weapons like Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed at wide receiver. Juwan Johnson should be more of a vertical threat than he is, too. Why did the Saints trade for Devaughn Vele if he isn't going to be targeted? Rattler's longest completion gained just 17 yards. He's got to be more effective at the third level. If this is his ceiling, it's time to start Tyler Shough.

Special teams was an ugly area again. Three of the Saints' four penalties (really! They were only fouled four times! More on that in a bit) came in the kicking game, either for illegal blocks or running into the kicker, or Blake Grupe misfiring a kickoff. The Saints are still too undisciplined in the game's third phase. Their margin for error is too thin to continue to make mistakes like this.

What went right?

Now let's highlight the positives. The Saints ran the ball well, with Kendre Miller (5.9 yards per carry) and Alvin Kamara (4.7) both finding some success against the Bills' defensive front. Rattler did a better job trusting his legs again this week, gaining 49 yards on six rushes of his own (8.2 yards per carry). Outside of a couple of Rashid Shaheed jet sweeps that went nowhere, New Orleans was effective on the ground.

It was a rough afternoon for referee Land Clark and his crew -- they had to huddle up and sort out several penalties, and initially fouled New Orleans for a Buffalo infraction that had to be corrected -- but the Saints began to clean up their penalties. They were only fouled four times compared to 11 flags on Buffalo. Still, it felt like every New Orleans penalty came at a critical moment. They gave up 41 yards compared to 55 for the Bills, and a poor decision by Nephi Sewell to run into the punter flipped the field late in regulation. That can't happen. But going from 10 penalties per game to just four is real progress.

Josh Allen is a tough quarterback to bring down, but the Saints defense sacked him three times and hit him seven other times. And they didn't blitz him, even if they maybe should have in some situations. Hopefully they can build off of this and level up once Chase Young finally returns from a preseason calf injury.

And what's the bottom line?

We saw a lot of encouraging things from the Saints. So many experts, analysts and fans wrote them off completely going into this game, but instead the team showed a scrappiness which was missing a week ago in Seattle. If they're going to be bad and lose a lot of games, let's at least be competitive.

That can only go so far. At some point you need to win some games and give guys a reason for buying in. Give fans a reason for watching and buying tickets to games. Moral victories don't help the standings.

Rebuilds are all about patience. Sometimes that patience runs out. Entertaining games with a real shot at upsetting a Super Bowl favorite? That helps patience stretch a little further. The Saints aren't a good team yet. We saw them do enough things the right way on Sunday to get an idea of what a good Saints team coached by Kellen Moore can look like.

So what comes next?

The Saints will travel back to New Orleans with an opportunity to get their first win in front of their home crowd. They're 1-9 in their last ten games, dating back to Thanksgiving Day last year, and the only victory came against the New York Giants. But the Giants team visiting them next week isn't the one they beat a year ago. Jaxson Dart is the quarterback and he's coming off an upset win over Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers. The complicating factor is that he's likely missing Malik Nabers, who is feared to have suffered a season-ending knee injury. Let's hope for a win here. But if the Saints can't win, they should at least show some heart.

This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Saints-Bills instant reaction: What went right, wrong in Week 4 loss?