Saints at Rams: 4 biggest storylines for Week 2
By:
Steve Rebeiro | 1 hour ago
The New Orleans Saints travel to Los Angeles to take on the Rams on Sunday afternoon. Here’s four of the biggest storylines heading into this Week 2 matchup.
We’ll start with the obvious one.
The Rematch
If you hadn’t heard, these two teams met in the NFC Championship last season. The game ended up being one of the most memorable playoff games of the decade. It wasn’t because it was an incredible game that ended in overtime. Everyone will remember this game due to the blatant missed pass interference call that would have essentially sealed the game for New Orleans.
The Saints have not forgotten about this. They feel like they were robbed of a trip to the Super Bowl. And can you blame them? Football games don’t come down to one play and they had plenty of other chances to win this game before and after the missed call. But had the call been made, the Saints would have been able to run the clock out and kick a chip-shot field goal for the win.
The NFL literally created a new rule to allow pass interference calls to be reviewed as a direct result of this play. New Orleans will be as fired up as any team on their road trip to Los Angeles. They’ll be out there to prove that they deserved to be playing for the Super Bowl last season and that they’re the best team in the NFC.
That being said, the Rams are going to be just as fired up as the Saints. They’ve been hearing what I broke down in the last two paragraphs for months. People have constantly been saying that the Rams were gifted a trip to the Super Bowl. They’ve ignored the fact that, after the missed call, the Rams still had to drive down the field, make a 48 yard field goal, and force one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play football into a turnover after the Saints won the coin toss in overtime.
The Rams deserved to win that football game and they earned it on the field. At the end of the day, they were the better team. They know this. They’ll be out to prove it to everyone else on Sunday.
Rams fans, expect to see plenty of replays of Nickell Robey-Coleman using the hit stick on TommyLee Lewis during Sunday’s game. Also, expect an awesome football game. Anytime two great teams can go head-to-head in the NFL is a treat. It’s even better when the two teams playing may genuinely despise each-other.
Can the Rams contain Alvin Kamara?
The Rams haven’t had a ton of success against speedy, dual-threat running backs under Wade Phillips. Last week, Christian McCaffrey totaled 209 yards and two touchdowns on 29 total touches. McCaffrey is obviously a stud, but it isn’t impossible to stop him. He was just held to 53 total yards by Tampa Bay on Thursday night.
My point is that Alvin Kamara is and always will be a nightmare of a matchup for the Rams.
He’s had over 100 total yards every time he’s played the Rams. He racked up 188 total yards and two touchdowns in his debut against the Rams in 2017, which included a massive 74 yard touchdown run. The Rams were able to hold him 116 total yards when they met in Week 9 last year, but Kamara found the end zone three times and the Rams lost the game.
The Rams were finally able to keep Kamara out of the end zone in the NFC Championship, but Kamara still crossed the 100 total yard mark and hauled in 10 catches for 96 yards. In a drive early in the third quarter, Drew Brees discovered that Kamara on a short swing route out of the backfield was basically a guarantee for positive yards, and hit Kamara four times on a 12 play drive. Every catch went for between 8-9 yards.
Sunday will be the fourth time that the Rams face off against Kamara. They’ve failed to stop him in the first three meetings. Still, the team is 2-1in those matchups. They can win the game even if Kamara runs wild. But if they can contain him, a victory feels much more certain. It’s going to be a tough task for the Rams defense.
Can Jared Goff bounce back?
Jared Goff became a very rich man last week when the Rams committed to a four year, $134 million contract extension. He followed that up with an abysmal game against the Carolina Panthers.
It was yet another bad road game for Goff, who has played much better in Los Angeles over his career than he has anywhere else. Last season, Goff completed 68% of his passes in the Coliseum, and threw for 22 touchdowns against just three interceptions. On the road, his completion percentage dropped to 61%, and he threw just 10 touchdowns against nine interceptions.
Goff went 23 for 39 for 186 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. He averaged just 4.7 yards per attempt, his second lowest under Sean McVay, with his lowest coming against Chicago last season. Carolina is a solid team, but their defense is not even in the same galaxy as the Bears.
We haven’t seen Jared Goff play well since, well, the NFC Championship against the Saints. Public perception has not been kind to Goff since his poor performance in Super Bowl LIII.
He needs to have a good game, and we should expect him to. Goff has never had a poor performance against New Orleans. Even in his rookie year under Jeff Fisher, Goff threw for three touchdowns and posted a 100.3 quarterback rating against the Saints. It was his only game with multiple touchdown passes of his rookie season and by far his highest quarterback rating on the year.
Goff should bounce back in a big way in a huge matchup against the Saints.
Who will gain the edge in playoff positioning?
Last season, both the Rams and the Saints finished 13-3. The Saints won the tie-breaker and claimed the one seed due to their Week 9 victory over the Rams.
It didn’t matter much as the Saints still couldn’t get the job done in the NFC Championship at home. But make no mistake, this game will be crucial for playoff positioning if both teams live up to their hype. A head-to-head win against the Saints would be huge for the Rams in their quest for the number one seed and another Super Bowl berth.
Even in the short-term, a win here could give the Rams a big advantage in the standings. The Saints will travel to Seattle in Week 3, host the Cowboys in Week 4, and get the Bears on the road in Week 7. They have some tough matchups early on. The Rams also have to face Seattle on the road before their Week 9 bye, but the rest of the schedule may not be too bad. Road games against Atlanta and Cleveland don’t look as tough today as they did before the season began.
If the Rams can take care of business against the Saints, they’ll gain a crucial advantage in both the short and long term standings.
Heading into a rematch of the controversial NFC Championship game, there’s plenty of storylines to talk about as the Rams host the Saints in Week 2.
theramswire.usatoday.com
