A few random post-game thoughts and analysis

All right. I have decided. It is not a mirage, we really are a good team.

I was really afraid that getting down in the red zone, then having penalties back us up and getting a field goal to go up by 13 rather than a touchdown to put us up by 17 was going to come back and bite us in the end. It almost did, but the long drive by the offense, and Watkins securing the onside kick, preserved the victory.

You know with Fisher, up by 13 with 8 minutes left, it would have been run-run-run-punt. Thank goodness for McVay having the stones to keep doing what was working rather than going into "prevent offense."

On Higbee's big play, where he kept breaking tackles, was anyone besides me saying "just don't fumble!" "just don't fumble!"? Also, take a look at the replay of that play on the highlights, and you see a player downfield making blocks for Higbee. Who? Todd Gurley.

Early in the game our DL were being held or blocked in the back on nearly every pass play. Drove me nuts, but then later in the game they let us get away with pretty blatant holding a few times so I felt better. At least it was called consistently.

Officiating was generally better than average this game. They held onto their flags on a couple of plays that often would have been called PI but really were just good defense.

This doesn't happen very often, but Hekker got outpunted by the Saints punter. That guy had some great kicks.

Goff is very effective in the pocket. He knows when to scramble, and his legs got him out of multiple sacks yesterday. I like that he keeps looking downfield while on the move, but I also like that he knows when to just throw it away. We are underappreciating how smart he has been with the ball avoiding INTs this year. I think the stat was 136 passes without an INT, and the one he threw yesterday was more on Watkins than on Goff.

After weeks of reliving Kupp's "drop" at the end of the Seahawks game, can we just admit that overall this guy is a really good receiver? He made multiple excellent catches yesterday. It was not that many years ago that people considered it a given that WR's would take a year or more to acclimate to the NFL and that rookie WR's rarely made a big impact. (Obviously, there were exceptions like Randy Moss but that was the rule of thumb.) This year, we are getting significant production out of Everett, Kupp and now Reynolds, and none of them were even first round picks.

FWIW - Cooper Kupp stats to date though 11 games 46 catches for 597 yards 13.0 ypc
Isaac Bruce Rookie season (played 12 games) 21 catches 272 yards 13.0 ypc
Torry Holt Rookie season (played 16 games on GSOT) 52 catches 788 yards 15.2 ypc

I liked that fact that very early in the game, McVay ran the Tavon jet sweep and actually gave him the ball and that he got good yardage on the play. By doing this early, defenses have to respect the play, so that it can continue to be effective making runs easier for Gurley throughout the game. (Interestingly, I noticed at least one other NFL team running this play on Sunday.) But I hated all the rest of the Tavon runs, which were pretty much all wasted plays. I feel like McVay feels he has to find a way to use Tavon better. IMO, the jet sweep action is enough for now. That action really does open up cracks for Gurley and the real running game.

Prior to the game, I felt Gurley would have to have a big boy game in order for us to win. He did and we did. I'm still not sure we used him enough.(See bad-Tavon plays above.) He is awesome as an outlet receiver and on screens, in addition to his running. This team reminds me a lot of the GSOT offense in that the team can pass effectively, but the offense is dominant when it is running through Gurley first, just as was the case with Faulk.

Thank goodness the Saints did not run Kamara more than they did. I think getting up on them early and staying up on them pushed Payton to fall back on his traditional MO, which is Brees in the passing game. This played into our strengths. If I were Payton I would have run Kamara right at us a lot more.

Robert Woods who? Another thing that makes the Rams dangerous is that we don't have a primary receiver you can take away. Goff REALLY distributes the ball to a lot of people. Good games by Watkins, Kupp and Reynolds, although I'm not sure Watkins is living up to his talent even on a good day like yesterday.