ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — A new era in Buffalo kicked off Wednesday when Terry and Kim Pegula became just the second owners in the 55-year history of the Bills franchise. At the NFL owners meeting in New York City, they received unanimous approval to fork over $1.4 billion to purchase the team.

As for the players, great news, they said, but nothing really changes on the field. They have the New England Patriots coming to Ralph Wilson Stadium on Sunday for a first-place showdown, and they are laser-focused on that.

“That’s really more for the higher-ups,” linebacker Manny Lawson said of the sale of the team. “(The Pegulas) have been part of a good franchise with the Buffalo Sabres (they also own the NHL team), and we expect them to run this team as such. As far as my role, my job is to play football. For us, we play ball and do what we’re told.”

Running back Fred Jackson, one of the longest-tenured Buffalo players, said he recognized how important the sale process was to a fan base that spent so much time in recent years worrying about whether an outside entity would buy the Bills and move them somewhere such as Toronto or Los Angeles. For the team, however, it has to be business as usual.

“The thing that we said is it’s great for everybody — the team, the community — and we’re excited about that, but the most important thing to us right now is focusing on New England,” Jackson said. “We’re excited for everything that’s going on, but we need to take care of what’s going on in this locker room. It will all feel rather sour if we don’t go out and win on Sunday.”

The Bills are coming off a surprising 17-14 victory in Detroit, while the Patriots rebounded from an embarrassing Monday night defeat in Kansas City with a 43-17 rout of Cincinnati. The Bills certainly took notice of that, and they know that the Patriots, who beat them in 24 of the past 26 meetings, deserve their full and undivided attention.

“We’ve had three or four team meetings about it,” quarterback Kyle Orton said of the ownership situation. “Whatever needs to be addressed has been addressed, everyone is excited about the new ownership, and other than that, we’re excited to play a great game on Sunday in front of our home fans, and the focus is on winning a home division game against a great opponent.”

The Bills enter the game ranked No. 2 in the NFL in run defense, a huge improvement over last year when they ranked 28th. The Patriots gouged them for 158 rushing yards in the teams’ first 2013 meeting, then for 267 in the final game of the year. Rush defense will be a key Sunday because if the Bills can force the Patriots into a one-dimensional game, they can turn loose their pass rush and get after quarterback Tom Brady.

“We just made it a point of emphasis during camp that we were not going to let anyone run on us,” said defensive tackle Marcell Dareus, who is having his best season as a pro.

From 2009-13, the Bills never ranked higher than 28th in the league in run defense. During that 80-game period, they gave up an average of 147.9 yards on the ground, more than double the current figure of 71. New defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz said almost from the moment he arrived that the Bills were going to be better against the run, and they certainly are.

“Last year, this defense made a lot of big plays, a lot of sacks and turnovers and things like that,” said Schwartz, who was hired in January, shortly after he was fired as head coach of the Detroit Lions. He replaced Mike Pettine, who left to become head coach in Cleveland. “We just needed to be able to play some of the other plays better.”

The Bills haven’t allowed more than 86 rushing yards in any of their five games this year, with the high set by running back Matt Forte and the Chicago Bears in the opener. In the five years prior, Buffalo held opponents to run totals that low only 13 times.

One area that was cleaned up was the occasional breakdown plays. Last year, the Bills gave up 48 rushes of at least 10 yards, 19 of those going for at least 20 yards, and five for touchdowns. Because of those long runs, the Bills had seven games in which they allowed at least 150 rushing yards, and their average yield was 128.9 yards per game.

“Run defense sets up a lot of different things,” Schwartz said. “Generally, the teams that are best in the red zone are teams that can stop the run or run the ball well. Third-down percentage has a lot to do with it. You want to keep them in third-down-and-long situations. I think that certainly plays a part of it. The standard is high, and we have to be able to live up to it.”