Hello all,
Its Saints-Rams week so here I am.
I havent seen a ton of the Rams this year but what I've seen has been pretty scary on offense. I was surprised the Pack moved the ball as well as they did but Rodgers is good (almost as good as Drew!) so I guess I shouldnt be that surprised.
Here's where the Saints are:
1) Offense - we are as balanced as we've ever been in the Brees/Payton Era. We beat the Vikings at MN with Drew passing for120 yards and 1 TD. The week before that we beat Baltimore on the road and started the game with a 20 play, 12+ minute drive (fumbled inside the 5 but it was a helluva thing).
Of course, Drew can still sling it when necessary, but with a very stout O-Line (I would argue top 2-3 in the league) plus Kamara plus Ingram, we are tough to stop over the long haul.
Plus Payton now has a new toy in Taysom Hill, who is probably the best pure athlete on the team. He plays QB, RB, TE/FB, KR and is our best special teams cover guy. We use him to run a wildcat/read-option set. It doesnt always work but has been effective overall. He threw a deep pass out of it last week so there is a lot of stuff on tape to get ready for. Personally I think there is a pass to Drew coming soon as teams just leave him alone when he jogs out wide.
The Rams D scares me because they have a strong inside pass rush, which is Drew's kryptonite. But as I said, our O-line is mashing people so should be a great test.
2) Defense. Eh.
We managed to field a competent defense last year, mostly due to improved secondary and ball-hawking. Our secondary has taken a huge leap backwards. Lattimore started very slow (sophomore slump?) but has turned it on recently. Our #2 and #3 CB positions have been horrific - although PJ WIlliams just got named NFC defensive player of the week(!!) - he have up 3 TDs but forced a fumble and had a pick 6, so that makes up for it, I guess? I would expect Lattimore to shadow Woods and more or less neutralize him but Cooper Kupp should be in line for a monster game.
We have the #1 rated rush defense, partially on merit and partially because our pass defense is lousy. I'm sure Gurley will rip off a few but I would be surprised to see him have a dominant outing.
Our pass rush has been coming on lately but now our prized rookie Marcus Davenport is out for a month with what sounds like turf toe. That sucks because he is an animal. Still raw as hell but he's insanely athletic. You'll catch a break there.
3) ST - a true strength for maybe the first time in about 10 years. Our kicker Will Lutz is excellent, our cover teams are very strong and we even have some return ability, though that seems like a dying art in the NFL.
Anyway, based on the fact that our pass defense is pretty questionable and the Rams have a balanced/high-powered attack on one hand, but ts a late game in the Dome on the other (when Drew is most likely to go supernova), I think it will be a high scoring but close game.
Maybe 37-34 or something like that. (Which of course means it will be 15-12 FG fest, but we'll see).
So there you have it - hope everyone is well
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/31/2018 08:41AM by saints_alive.
