ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — You knew it.

The oddsmakers in Vegas knew it.

Everybody not wearing a New Orleans Saints uniform Sunday knew it.

The Saints’ chances of walking out of Highmark Stadium with a win against one of the best teams in the NFL, led by one of the league’s best players, were much closer to “none” than to “slim.”

Yes, the Saints played well for the most part.

They didn’t embarrass themselves like they did seven days ago in Seattle, when it looked like the wheels of the Kellen Moore era had already completely fallen off.

The Saints’ effort in this loss to the Buffalo Bills was much better than that one.

But as Saints defensive end Cam Jordan reminded us after the game, there are no moral victories in the NFL. The only thing that matters is what the scoreboard says.

This time it read “Bills 31, Saints 19,” which looked and sounded and felt so much better than the 44-13 beatdown against the Seahawks.

“Is this considered bouncing back?” Jordan asked rhetorically. “Losing is not bouncing back. At the end of the day, it’s the same feeling. We’ve got to find a way to get in the ‘W’ column.”

The Saints haven’t been in that column since December, when Bryan Bresee blocked a field goal to preserve a victory against the New York Giants. The Saints, 0-4 this season, have now lost eight games in a row. The only team with a longer losing streak is the Tennessee Titans, who lost their 10th straight game Sunday.

The Saints’ 0-4 start shouldn’t really come as a surprise.

Once they couldn’t close the deal on their first two games in the Superdome against the Arizona Cardinals and the San Francisco 49ers, in fact, an 0-4 start seemed inevitable.

When the NFL released the schedule in May, most of us marked these back-to-back trips to the West Coast and then the East Coast as losses.

Now things get a bit more urgent. The Saints return home Sunday to host the Giants and the New England Patriots. The playing field should be more even in that one.

That wasn’t the case Sunday. The Bills (4-0) are one of the elite teams in the NFL. They will be one of the last teams standing in the AFC come playoff time in January. They looked the part Sunday, scoring on their first two drives and looking like they were well on their way to covering the 16½-point spread the Vegas oddsmakers set initially.

The Saints, like they have done in three of their first four games, hung around and made it respectable. A 14-10 halftime deficit almost felt like a win. The biggest missed opportunity came at the end of the first half, when the Saints tried a trick play that saw receiver Chris Olave attempt a pass to quarterback Spencer Rattler. The pass was picked off, robbing the Saints of taking some momentum going into the half.

“I love the play call,” center Erik McCoy said. “I do. It’s frustrating. Guy made a great play. But it would have been nice to come out with seven (points) right there.”

Hindsight is 20/20. If the play worked and the Saints had won, it would have been the biggest play call in Moore’s young head coaching career. But it didn’t and instead became the latest missed opportunity for the Saints.

Truth be told, it probably wouldn’t have mattered.

Buffalo rarely loses in its own stadium. The Bills’ quarterback, last year’s MVP Josh Allen, doesn’t let them.

Sunday was Buffalo’s 14th straight win at Highmark Stadium.

The Saints, meanwhile, are still looking to get win No. 1 for Moore and Rattler, who’s now 0-10 as a starter.

There were some signs of improvement on Sunday. The Saints, who came into the game tied for the league lead in penalties, committed just four. Kicker Blake Grupe made both his field goals, including a season-best 54-yarder. The Saints ran the ball better than they have all season.

It wasn’t enough.

“Either way it goes, I’m not in a great mood,” McCoy said. “A blowout loss or a regular loss, it still counts as a loss in the loss column.”

Still, Alvin Kamara says the Saints are “trending up.”

We’ll find out if that’s true next week when the Giants come to New Orleans. The Saints desperately need to win that one for fans to start believing again.

Sunday felt like a step in the right direction, despite what the scoreboard said. 

“While there are positives in this, the ultimate goal has yet to be achieved in games,” Moore said. “So we are striving for that and we need to get there.”

Indeed, they do. 

And it needs to start next week in the Dome.