Alright, getting the conversation started early....I need someone to convince me I'm wrong about a few things. Here's what scares me about the Rams going in. 1. The 2-headed RB....the addition of CJ Anderson has really given their offense some pop. He and Gurley are going to be a major handful, and the addition is greater with the subtraction of Rankins as our plug in the middle. I know statistically we are the number 2 run defense in the league, but I've felt all season that stat was more about teams going pass happy against us and not even trying to run. Rams are gonna run. 2. Andrus Peat....worst game since his rookie year last week, and its basically due to the injured hand. Someone asked in last week's thread how a broken hand would make him jump offsides twice...how about this? He was trying to get a quicker start to make up for the fact that he couldn't use his hand properly, as 2 holding penalties attest. And that was against Fletcher Cox. This week he's up against Aaron Donald. Yikes. 3. Dante Fowler, Jr. .... sure, he was on the field in the first meeting, but he'd been a member of the team - about 3 days? Now they've had half a season to figure out how to incorporate his nasty skills. 4. Aqib Talib....I've already mentioned this in last week's thread, but it bears repeating. He missed the last game, and Can'tGuardMike toasted Marcus Peters. Of course, we were without Ted Ginn, Jr. Does his return offset the return of AT? We shall see.
def gonna be tough. game is a 50/50 win/loss IMO. Saints have to score 30+ to win. Defense has to hold Rams under 35 to have a chance. I see it as one of those back and forth high scoring games where whichever team makes 2-3 key plays/stops/turnovers etc throughout the game to get 1 possession ahead ends up winning with the losing team "running out of time." I feel like that favors the Saints since they have what seems to be the better defense. Then again you see it all the time where 2 powerhouse offenses meet and it ends up being a 21-17 defensive battle. No telling whats gonna end up happening.
The Rams so-so defense has puzzled me all season. They are loaded with talent and haven't put it all together, although they looked damned good last week. Turned it up for the playoffs? I hope their regular season D shows up Sunday.
Statistically, rematches of high scoring games are low scoring about 60% of the time. I see it as a 28-24 game and hope it's the Saints wirh 28. I can see the Saints putting together a drive like the one that ate up most of the 3rd quarter against the Eagles but as good as Gurley and Anderson are I can't see the Rams doing the same. If the RBs are basically equal we still have a huge edge at QB comparing Goff to Brees.
The first game seemed to be the Saints jumping on them and the Rams forced to abandon the run to catch up. One other "issue" for the game is that Connor Culp WR is out, Woods and Cook are enough to keep us busy.
The energy and electricity in the dome will be at another level. A slow start would be what could kill that, but after what the Saints just went through in the divisional game vs. the Eagles, that may not even be enough. Let's geaux get our hardware yall! WHO DAT!!!
In the first injury report of the week, Watson and Kirkwood did not practice today. Peat, Ramczyk and Unger were limited. Rams reported no injuries.
