The Saints were positively beat down in St. Louis by the Rams today. I am floored by what transpired, and true to my word, I’m going to go ahead and call this one of the biggest regular season upsets in NFL history. The team that showed up today for St. Louis was not what we’ve seen at any point this season. Of course Steven Jackson playing well is not really a surprise, but their defense completely shutting down the Saints was an utter shock. The Saints’ edge blocking was the story in this game. Jermon Bushrod, Charles Brown and Pat McQuistan were completely incapable of doing anything to stop the Rams’ outside rushers. Chris Long had his way with the Saints’ offense practically on his own. The loss drops the Saints to 5-3 and they’ll need to forget about this one quickly because next week versus the Bucs becomes ever so pivotal to the team’s season.
My postgame bullets:
- That missed field goal early by John Kasay really hurt the Saints’ momentum. It was all downhill from there.
- The Rams did a terrific job taking Sproles and Graham out of the game. Between that and consistently applying pressure, the Saints’ offense was shut down.
- Chris Ivory made his return and was largely ineffective.
- I can’t think of one player on the Saints’ offense that played well. Maybe Lance Moore and Jed Collins. That’s really about it.
- The defense was disruptive and made some plays. Hard to blame them for this loss when the offense just couldn’t get anything done.
- Steven Jackson is a load and a beast. The Saints couldn’t stop him at all.
- The linebacker play continues to be the achilles heel of this team.
- Thomas Morstead had a blocked punt thanks to a horrible block by Jonathon Amaya.
- Darren Sproles’ returns were poor.
That’s really all I have to say. The game was worse than the score. The Saints were down 17-0 at halftime and 24-0 at one point. The grades won’t be good.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
