I agree with you that New Orleans is a well oiled machine right now. But....the Falcons essentially puked all over themselves in this game. Quite frankly, in the first half the Saints had a few gaffes. Had the Falcons not screwed things up...they could have actually had the lead after half time.
Secondly, for the first time that I have seen all year....Brees was getting hit and sacked. Perhaps there is a few kinks in the armour of the O-line?
I'll give you a few reasons why a Rams/Saints rematch could have a more favorable outcome for the Rams.
1) Talib will be back. It will be a domino effect. Talib will jam Thomas at the line of scrimmage. Brees will no longer be able to get rid of the ball to Thomas right away. He will need to go through his progressions and find another receiver. Sure, Brees can always find another receiver.....but even if jamming Thomas just costs 0.5 seconds......that's all the time that Donald needs. Donald was close to getting a quality QB hit several times during the first game vs the Saints. The extra 0.5 seconds will bring dividends for the Rams.
2) Edge pass rush will be MUCH BETTER vs the last Saints game. Fowler was only with the team a few days before the last game. He was drinking from a firehose in that game. If Ebukam continues to grow (but you can't expect a repeat of the Chiefs game), and Franklin-Myers is also making good progress...and you get any solid conribution from Obo.....that is much more than they got during the Saints game.
3) Peters seems to have settled down. Again...with Talib back, Peters won't be asked to cover Thomas all game long. He gets the #2 receiver. So there should be a lot of improvement in reducing the big gainer plays.
4) Ball Distribution - The last game was Kupp's first game back. He didn't seem very crisp and agile. His 41 Yard TD came off a rub/pick which wasn't covered well by New Orleans. Outside of that play, Kupp had 4 catches 48 yards. Getting more targets to Reynolds and Everett should net more yardage and big plays. I would love to watch Eli Apple try to cover Josh Reynolds.
5) Special Teams - In the last game Countess made some bad decisions in bringing the ball out, and GZ missed a makeable FG. Chances are GZ get's the makeable ones....and Cooper will have 7 plus games under his belt taking the Kick Return duties before the next New Orleans game.
I was going to add that the Rams can't possibly get screwed by the Refs in the rematch game....but that issue never seems to go away.
