Aaron Donald is ready for rematch with Saints: 'We expect a dog fight'

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By: Cameron DaSilva | 2 hours ago



With four meetings in the last three seasons, the Los Angeles Rams and New Orleans Saints have grown to become bitter rivals. It doesn’t help that the Rams knocked the Saints out of the playoffs due to a controversial no-call in the NFC championship game last postseason, adding to the fierce competition between the two teams.
They’ve split the last four meetings, with the Rams winning the most important one in January. And on Sunday, they’ll meet again, this time at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Aaron Donald has grown accustomed to facing the Saints and he knows exactly what to expect from Sean McVay’s squad: “A dog fight.”
Donald is excited about taking on the defending NFC South champions this weekend and knows it’s bound to be a close game.

“We’ve been playing them every season. We know what type of game it’s going to be. It’s usually a physical game. It’s a game with a lot of back-and-forth – usually a good game, a close game. That’s what we expect, we expect a dog fight,” Donald told Rams Wire in an interview on behalf of Pizza Hut. “We’re excited about playing a good team like that. We kind of know what to expect from teams that we saw last year. We played them twice and they gave us different looks and tried to find ways to slow us down and do certain things. But that’s what we’ve got great coaches for, to watch that and for us as a team, put that together and go out there and execute it.”

The Saints did a good job keeping Donald in check last season, holding him to zero sacks in both games. As he always does, he impacted the game in other ways.
He hit Drew Brees three times in the NFC championship game and another four times in Week 9, despite never bringing him down for a sack. He generated pressure consistently in both games and also had three combined tackles for loss.
Brees gets the ball out of his hands so quickly that it’s difficult for even the best pass rushers to sack him. It’s exactly why he was taken down just 17 times last season and once against the Texans on Monday night.
Donald will have to be on top of his game in Week 2 because he knows more double teams are coming.
“It’s expected,” he said.


Donald recently joined the Pizza Hut family and was featured in a new ad, showing off his skills on the ping pong table.
“I’m excited to be a part of the Pizza Hut family as one of the new brand ambassadors. … As a kid, grew up loving Pizza Hut, eating it like every kid. I remember my grandma taking me and my brother and my sister to Pizza Hut and us sitting down and eating pizza and I’m excited to be a part of the team.”

 

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Rams open as 2.5-point favorites over Saints in Week 2
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By: Cameron DaSilva | 25 minutes ago


It’s not in prime time, but there may not be a game with more hype and anticipation than the Rams-Saints showdown on Sunday afternoon. It’s a rematch of the NFC championship game, which featured an infamously controversial play at the end of the fourth quarter that helped send the Rams to the Super Bowl.
They split the series last season with the Saints beating Los Angeles in Week 9, and these two teams have been very evenly matched the last three seasons; the Rams are 2-2 in their last four meetings.

The oddsmakers know how competitive these teams are and how close each matchup is, setting the spread at a fairly low number. According to BetMGM, the Rams are only 2.5-point favorites at home in Week 2.
The 52.5 total point line is the highest of the week, as well.
In their last three games against each other, the total score is 88-87 in favor of the Saints. Sunday’s showdown is expected to be another close one, just based on how good both teams are and their past history.
The Rams beat the Panthers in Week 1 by a score of 30-27, covering the 2.5-point spread as road favorites.

 

Elmgrovegnome

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I expect the Saints to play just like they did with Houston. Short passes to get the ball out of Brees hands.

I’m sure Wade will have a plan to combat it.