Week 8 Recap – St. Louis Rams vs New Orleans Saints
ST. LOUIS – On October 30, the Saints had their eighth regular season game of the year and the Rams had their seventh because they had a bye already. The Rams are coming off a blowout loss away one week ago against the Dallas Cowboys and the Saints are coming off a huge blowout win against the winless Indianapolis Colts on Sunday Night Football. The Rams will wear their Super Bowl throwback uniforms that were worn more than a decade ago.
Pre-game notes: The last time these two teams played last year the Rams got killed 13-31; look for the Saints to extend that differential even further today. The Rams cut draft choice LB Jabara Williams and signed T Mark LeVoir because of RT Jason Smith’s concussion. Rams backup CB Brian Jackson was just put on IR because of his knee and will be replaced by CB Marquis Johnson, who was on the physically unable to perform list. The Saints cut TE Tory Humphrey and activated RB Christopher Ivory from the physically unable to perform list because of starting RB Mark Ingram’s heel injury.
Former Heisman winner Ingram will be replaced by RBs Pierre Thomas and Darren Sproles. The NFL’s leading receiver for a TE, Jimmy Graham, is active with his ankle problem. Sam Bradford (ankle sprain) will not play today for the second straight week and will be replaced by A.J. Feeley at quarterback. Rams backup DE C. J. Ah You is active. Here is a list of the Rams inactives: WR Danario Alexander, QB Bradford, CB Justin King, RB Jerious Norwood, OLB Brady Poppinga, DT Darell Scott and OT Smith. The league’s worst scoring team (Rams) will face the league’s best scoring team (Saints) in just a few minutes.
1st quarter:
On 4th-and-10 at the STL 46, Rams P Donnie Jones punted the ball 39 yards and it was downed at the NOR 15.
On 4th-and-8 at the NOR 43, Saints P Thomas Morstead punted the ball 37 yards and it was fair caught at the STL 20.
On 4th-and-14 at the STL 16, Jones punted the ball 42 yards out of bounds at the NOR 42.
On 4th-and-5 at the STL 31, Saints K John Kasay unsuccessfully kicked a 49-yard field goal wide left.
On 4th-and-9 at the NOR 46, Jones punted the ball 34 yards and it was returned to the NOR 16.
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2nd quarter:
On 4th-and-11 at the NOR 26, Morstead punted the ball 62 yards out of bounds at the STL 12.
On 4th-and-7 at the NOR 20, Rams K Josh Brown successfully kicked a 38-yard field goal. Saints 0 Rams 3.
On 4th-and-13 at the NOR 48, Morstead punted the ball 37 yards out of bounds at the STL 15.
On 4th-and-8 at the STL 20, Jones punted the ball 55 yards and it was returned to the NOR 25.
On 4th-and-19 at the NOR 30, Morstead had his punt blocked by DE Robert Quinn and the ball went out of bounds at the NOR 15.
On 1st-and-goal at the 3, Rams HB Steven Jackson rushed the ball up the right guard, which resulted in a touchdown and extra point by Brown. Saints 0 Rams 10
On 1st-and-10 at the NOR 12, Saints QB Drew Brees threw a deep right pass intended for WR Devery Henderson and the ball was intercepted by CB Josh Gordy who returned it to the NOR 38 for no gain.
On 2nd-and-goal at the 8, Feeley threw a short left pass to WR Brandon Lloyd, which resulted in a touchdown and extra point by Brown. Saints 0 Rams 17
3rd quarter:
On 4th-and-10 at the NOR 27, Morstead punted the ball 46 yards out of bounds at the STL 27.
On 2nd-and-goal at the 3, Jackson rushed the ball up the right guard, which resulted in a touchdown and extra point by Brown. Saints 0 Rams 24
On 4th-and-2 at the NOR 36, Morstead punted the ball 58 yards out of bounds at the STL 6.
On 3rd-and-6 at the STL 10, Feeley was strip sacked, which was recovered by MLB Jonathan Vilma in the end zone for a touchdown and extra point by Kasay. Saints 7 Rams 24
4th quarter:
On 4th-and-6 at the STL 24, Jones punted the ball 59 yards and it was returned to the NOR 32.
On 1st-and-goal at the 3, Thomas rushed the ball up the right guard, which resulted in a touchdown and extra point by Kasay. Saints 14 Rams 24
On 4th-and-16 at the STL 40, Jones punted the ball 42 yards and it was fair caught at the NOR 18.
On 4th-and-10 at the NOR 33, Morstead punted the ball 42 yards and it was fair caught at the STL 25.
On 4th-and-3 at the NOR 47, Jones punted the ball 27 yards and it was fair caught at the NOR 20.
On 1st-and-10 at the NOR 20, Brees threw a short right pass intended for Graham and the ball was intercepted by S Darian Stewart who returned it for a touchdown and extra point by Brown. Saints 14 Rams 31
On 3rd-and-goal at the 8, Brees threw a short middle pass to WR Lance Moore, which resulted in a touchdown and extra point by Kasay. Saints 21 Rams 31
Kasay attempted an onside kick and the Rams returned it for no gain to the NOR 45.
On 1st-and-10 at the NOR 45, Feeley knelt to the NOR 46. End game
Post-game notes: The Rams lost no players to injury throughout the game. Saints RT Charles Brown was injured during a play and did not return. The 2011 World Series Champions St. Louis Cardinals were in attendance and starting pitcher Chris Carpenter was an honorary captain for the Rams pre-game coin toss. The baseball team left early for the parade held downtown following the game. Saints head coach Sean Payton was up in the booth for the second straight game; Joe Vitt, former interim Rams head coach, practically took over Payton’s sideline duties, though the offensive coordinator, Pete Carmichael, called the plays.
Brees continued his streak of at least one touchdown throw in consecutive games with his garbage TD at the end of the game; he is now at 37, one short of Brett Favre for second all-time. Jackson had his first 100+ game on the ground (159) since two seasons ago and played amazing with a 6.4 average and two rushing touchdowns. He is now second in franchise history with 28 100+ games, ten behind Eric Dickerson. Steven is also the franchise’s leader in yards from scrimmage for a halfback. Lloyd had another impressive game, though did have a penalty and huge dropped pass. Rams LB James Laurinaitis played great making ten solo tackles with one sack and Rams DE Chris Long had three tackles to go along with three sacks on the day.
In a win that was deserved, the Rams beat the New Orleans “Who Dat” Saints 31-21. The Rams are no longer winless and the Saints are now 5-3, with those three losses away. New Orleans was shut out in the first half for the first time since ‘07 thanks to Kasay’s missed field goal. This was the first game where the Rams were not losing by multiple digits and before the game, the Rams only led for six-and-a-half minutes in those games. Also, the Rams finally led at half time since their last game two seasons ago.
The biggest stat was rushing yards with the Rams easily beating the Saints in that category 183 to 56. However, New Orleans had almost one hundred more passing yards. Each team got sacked a bunch with Brees being sacked six times (Rams season-high) and Feeley four times. The Saints returned the kickoff five times for 121 yards and punts three times for 18 yards, though the Rams never returned at all. Turnovers were similar, so they were a nonfactor, though the Rams had four more penalties for double the yardage. Ball control was also similar, though the Rams had it longer.
The big stats of the game were turnovers and efficiency. The Rams’ blocked punt was huge near the end of the first half; the fumble recovery by the Saints in the end zone near the end of the third quarter was big, as well as the Rams pick six in the fourth quarter. Both teams were perfect in the red zone and goal to go with the Rams going three for three and the Saints going two for two in both categories. Both teams were also perfect on fourth down conversions with the Rams going two for two on fourth down and the Saints going one for one.
The season is looking better for the Rams, now that they are 1-6 in the regular season; however, they are still five games behind the San Francisco 49ers. I am officially declaring again that the season is over for the Rams and they will not win this year’s division for the first time since 2003 or make the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
By Trevor Roe
ProFootball-fans.com St. Louis Rams Correspondent