So when The Shirelles sang, “Mama said there’d be days like this”, this is probably what they meant.

It was a bit of a conundrum in Buffalo on Sunday afternoon. Drew Brees was held under 200 yards passing for the first time since the season finale of the 2006 season. He didn’t throw a touchdown pass, either. If you didn’t watch or attend the game and just happen to casually look at the box score in the morning paper, you’d probably assume the Bills beat the Saints. Well, you know what they say about assumptions.

Sunday, it wasn’t Brees, but the Saints running game, and the Saints defense that proved to be too much the inconsistent Bills to handle. In years past the Saints defense has been their Achilles heal. Now it appears the defense might be just as good as the offense and that’s a scary thought.

Anything good that was taken away from the win over Tampa Bay last week was erased by the Bills” 27-7 loss at the hands of the Saints. For the most part, the defense played well enough for the Bills to win the game. Aaron Schobel had a sack and a fumble recovery, and Chris Kelsay also added a sack. The Bills’ defensive unit held the Saints to 10 first half points and kept the Bills within a field goal at 10-7 to start the fourth quarter.

But thanks to anemic offense, the defensive effort was wasted. Through two games it looked as if the Bills had put their preseason offensive shortcomings behind them, but as the words on car mirrors say, objects in rearview are closer than they appear.

Some of the struggles should be expected and not surprising. They changed offensive coordinators 10 days before the opening game and their offensive line is chock full of first timers who played a pair of games together entering Sunday. As much as it hurts to give the devil his due, Saints defensive coordinator and former Bills head coach GreggWilliams devised a fool proof scheme. He used countless blitzes, linebackers, corners and I think I even saw a stray ball boy or two thrown at Trent Edwards. The results, and stats, weren’t pretty. Edwards threw for just 156 yards on 20 passes and a pick. His best friend was the Ralph Wilson Stadium turf. He was hit nearly 20 times and was sacked four times.

The Bills young line went to school against the Saints veteran defensive line, as did Bills offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt. We probably should have made a little more of the mismatch. Williams has been around the block in the NFL, whereas Van Pelt hasn’t even made his way past the third house on the block. Van Pelt and the offensive line will probably see a few more days like this during the season, but it’s only natural. The kids have played over their heads the first few games and it would be naive to think they were going to resemble the Electric Company and not suffer any growing pains. Neither Van Pelt nor the offense reacted well to what the Saints were doing defensively.

One problem that’s been painstakingly clear through three games is there inability to get the ball into the hands of their dynamic wide outs. They failed to get Terrell Owens involved and get him the football. He saw his 185 consecutive games with a catch streak end on Sunday. Lee Evans barely created a ripple, catching four balls for 31 yards. Edwards longest completion of the day was an 18-yard pass to wide out Josh Reed. The best play and longest pass of the afternoon was a 25-yarder from punter Brian Moorman to defensive end Ryan Denney on a fake field goal that resulted in Buffalo’s only touchdown.

But as bad things were going for the Bills, they were in the game to start the fourth quarter down only 10-7, despite a critical turnover by Edwards with 2:12 left in the third quarter. On a drive that started from their own 3-yard line, the Bills marched all the way to the Saints’ 27-yard line, all for naught however. On a third-and-three, Edwards attempted to force a pass Owens’ way, only to have former Bills corner Jabari Greer deflect the pass, allowing Saints defensive end Will Smith to come up with the interception. That play was turning point in the game. The Bills came away with nothing and the defense again was sent back onto the field to try to bail out the offense. But at this point, you could see the defense was gassed. They fought hard all day long, but when you keep going to the well eventually it’s going to dry up.

With 9:45 left in the fourth quarter, the defense broke. Saints running back Pierre Thomas’ 34-yard touchdown scamper put the Saints up 17-7. The Bills offense responded by committing two penalties on the very next series that resulted in a three-and-out. Saints kicker John Carney booted a 35-yard field goal to give the Saints some breathing room at 17-7 with 3:21 left. With 2:03 to play in the game, Thomas’s 19-yard touchdown run put the game out of reach at 27-7, his second score in span of almost ten minutes.

After three games, the Bills are probably where we thought they’d be at 1-2. They’ve beaten a bad team they should’ve beat in Tampa Bay, but they’ve failed to measure up to New England and New Orleans, two teams that will probably be in the thick of the playoffs this season. Already just three weeks into the season, and it feels like it’s been a long year already. They followed up a devastating loss with a rebound victory, but on Sunday the Bills failed to take a big step towards contender or playoff status.