After reflecting on this Saints game for a day...

[Rams43]

No X’s and O’s here, that’s not my thing and I’ll leave that for others. Rather, some general impressions.

So, here goes...

Our D has been overrated and the Saints really exposed them. BIG TIME.

Can’t give a quality team like the Saints a 35-14 lead in their house and still hope to win. Duh!

Still trying to wrap my mind around allowing 45 points to ANY NFL team. C’mon.

Aikman was right when he said that the Saints were able to do pretty much whatever they wanted against the Ram D. Hate to even type those words, but...

Our O was magnificent but our D placed them in the impossible position of having to score a TD on every possession.

We definitely got screwed on that Hekker run placement, but that wasn’t the reason we lost this game.

Gonna get a little philosophical here. Earlier in the year I read where some suggested that merely adding studs to the D might not necessarily result in cohesion. I scoffed at the time, but now I see their point. Suh and Peters are disappointing examples of players not even close to reaching expectations, much less exceeding them. Talib has been out hurt, so I’m not including him in this discussion.

Wade has got his work cut out, that’s for sure. His D quickly fell behind to the Packers 10-0 and was buried by the Saints early on. WTF? Another thing. What’s with the soft zone against Brees when not getting pressure? Like Aikman said, that seems suicidal.

Can y’all imagine what the Chiefs are gonna do unless this D gets “fixed”? Hang 60 on us? Geez...


There were some bright spots for the Rams. Not the least of which was coming back from a 21 point deficit. That was impressive.

And no Ram injuries that I’m aware of.

Fowler made a nice Ram debut. It’s early, but that looks like a good signing.

Nice to see Everett making plays. Sign of the future?

Ram O put up 35 freaking points, and that’s while missing a FG and feeling forced to attempt a failed fake punt. All in approx 25 minutes of possession.

Don’t have to look far to find the reason for this loss. Hint: It wasn’t the O or the ST. Lol.

Anybody else just champing at the bit to wipe that smug smile off of Asshole Face’s face? Like in a beat down kinda way come playoff time?

Hope Wade takes this humiliation of his D seriously and makes adjustments accordingly. ‘Cause, trust me, every opponent remaining on our schedule will be studying this Saints game tape.

Marcus Peters is an enigma to me. How does a healthy former All Pro CB turn into the weakest link in half a season? The player that Payton/Brees specifically chose to attack? Blows my mind, honestly.

Sigh.....

Well, no time now to wallow in pity. We lost to a helluva team in their house after tying them in the 4th quarter. Now it’s time to focus on the always dangerous (and sometimes late hitting) Seahawks.

 

[Ellard80]

The Defense did get better until the play to Thomas.

Actually without one of our superstar corners getting his ass beat all the time - this defense might see a lot different.

 

[LesBaker]

Suh

This signing has so far been a waste of money, he's not played that well and Donald is getting double temaed over 70% of the time so Suh is seeing a lot less than that and is just not playing up to par.

Marcus Peters is an enigma to me. How does a healthy former All Pro CB turn into the weakest link in half a season? The player that Payton/Brees specifically chose to attack? Blows my mind, honestly.

Well we don't know if he is totally healthy.

But we do know he's trying to play hero ball and leaving guys room to catch and run.

 

[bubbaramfan]

35 points in one half. Pathetic. No sacks, no punts, no three and outs. Pathetic. 1st half the Rams D couldn't stop a runny nose. Pathetic.

 

[“Turbo set!”]

I believe Suh might be hurt. Playing like JAG.

 

[Karate61]

1st half the Rams D couldn't stop a runny nose. Pathetic.

Maybe the Rams should have signed Suh•Da•Fed instead!

 

[Ken]

Joyner's play has been as bad or worse than Peters, and he's getting paid more and didn't get traded or change D schemes in the offseason.

 

[sjm1582002]

Through nine games last year the Rams D gave up 164 points.

This years D has given up 200 points in nine games.

Those expensive offseason FA additions and trades have not improved a middle of the pack D unit any at all.

I bet we will be seeing major changes this offseason.

 

[Merlin]

Marcus Peters is an enigma to me. How does a healthy former All Pro CB turn into the weakest link in half a season? The player that Payton/Brees specifically chose to attack? Blows my mind, honestly.

He's been exposed since Talib went down and he had to draw the top wideout. I think the problem with him is he doesn't take coaching, which is why the Chiefs and every staff he's played for have tired of his act. He has elite skills, but at this level if you're not taking coaching and polishing your technique and constantly getting better, none of that matters.

I'm sure now that his mistakes have cost us a game he'll actually work on what he's been doing wrong, i.e. his eye discipline and being too eager to jump routes. He needs to refocus on sticking on the wideout to ensure he's in position, and if he isn't willing to work on that he needs to be sat on the bench. I know our depth CBs are worse than him in terms of talent, but sitting him will demonstrate that the team is what is important. IMO if he doesn't clean things up in this Seattle game that is what is coming.

 

[Merlin]

Those expensive offseason FA additions and trades have not improved a middle of the pack D unit any at all.

While you are correct I think a lot of that has to do with Talib being out. If he hadn't been injured things would be a lot different.

As it is, IF this period of performance and the fallout gets Peters to actually take a little coaching and work on his fundamentals, it can turn out to be a positive where we get Talib back for the playoff run and also have an improved Peters as our CB2.

This thing ain't over yet. Rams are still in it they just need to shore up some of those areas of poor performance in the secondary with some better fundamentals and discipline in playing the call.

 

[KJD_Ram]

My biggest complaint was the tackling, or lack there of....how many times in the first half did we have someone stopped, only to see them slip free and get 5 or 6 more yards? Holding them to 3 points in the second half up until the busted coverage was nice, but they need to come out and start the game that way.

 

[RamFanWA]

besides the tackling which was atrocious....

Few things are more in contrast with the "We, not me" mentality than what Peters has displayed. Compare his performance to Todd Gurley's... If ANYONE had the right to take it to the house *last week" it was Todd - but he gave it up for the team, to ice the game..... Excellent character there. Kudo's to you, TGII

 

[Faceplant]

From the tackling, to the CB and S play.....it was all poop yesterday, and trending that way the past couple of weeks. We can only hope that they take this personally and up their level of play. That shit was emburrsin.....

 

[Loyal]

But isn't it all connected? Talib and Peters were hurt the same game, so the idea of man-to-man coverage has given way to more zone coverage, I believe. How do teams beat the Rams superior inside Dline rush? Quick slant routes or screens, where he holds the ball a minimal amount of time. If the QB holds the ball for only 2 seconds, our dline will never get there in order to affect him. Other guys, like Joyner probably are not trusting Peters (or others) to do his/their jobs, so they try to compensate and get burned....I think getting Talib will make this whole defense better...

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

No X’s and O’s here, that’s not my thing and I’ll leave that for others. Rather, some general impressions.

So, here goes...

Our D has been overrated and the Saints really exposed them. BIG TIME.

Can’t give a quality team like the Saints a 35-14 lead in their house and still hope to win. Duh!

Still trying to wrap my mind around allowing 45 points to ANY NFL team. C’mon.

Aikman was right when he said that the Saints were able to do pretty much whatever they wanted against the Ram D. Hate to even type those words, but...

Our O was magnificent but our D placed them in the impossible position of having to score a TD on every possession.

We definitely got screwed on that Hekker run placement, but that wasn’t the reason we lost this game.

Gonna get a little philosophical here. Earlier in the year I read where some suggested that merely adding studs to the D might not necessarily result in cohesion. I scoffed at the time, but now I see their point. Suh and Peters are disappointing examples of players not even close to reaching expectations, much less exceeding them. Talib has been out hurt, so I’m not including him in this discussion.

Wade has got his work cut out, that’s for sure. His D quickly fell behind to the Packers 10-0 and was buried by the Saints early on. WTF? Another thing. What’s with the soft zone against Brees when not getting pressure? Like Aikman said, that seems suicidal.

Can y’all imagine what the Chiefs are gonna do unless this D gets “fixed”? Hang 60 on us? Geez...


There were some bright spots for the Rams. Not the least of which was coming back from a 21 point deficit. That was impressive.

And no Ram injuries that I’m aware of.

Fowler made a nice Ram debut. It’s early, but that looks like a good signing.

Nice to see Everett making plays. Sign of the future?

Ram O put up 35 freaking points, and that’s while missing a FG and feeling forced to attempt a failed fake punt. All in approx 25 minutes of possession.

Don’t have to look far to find the reason for this loss. Hint: It wasn’t the O or the ST. Lol.

Anybody else just champing at the bit to wipe that smug smile off of Asshole Face’s face? Like in a beat down kinda way come playoff time?

Hope Wade takes this humiliation of his D seriously and makes adjustments accordingly. ‘Cause, trust me, every opponent remaining on our schedule will be studying this Saints game tape.

Marcus Peters is an enigma to me. How does a healthy former All Pro CB turn into the weakest link in half a season? The player that Payton/Brees specifically chose to attack? Blows my mind, honestly.

Sigh.....

Well, no time now to wallow in pity. We lost to a helluva team in their house after tying them in the 4th quarter. Now it’s time to focus on the always dangerous (and sometimes late hitting) Seahawks.

Marcus Peters was never a shut down corner. He was always more of a Second tier guy, who happened to get a lot of int’s. He needs a Talib on the field so Peters can do his thing.


I disagree about the Hekker blown spot call not being the reason the Rams lost. It was the start of the losing. Up until then they were trading punches. When the Rams got the forced fumble it gave them momentum. Then when the Saints held the to a field goal attempt you could feel the Saints grabbing the momentum back. Who knows how the rest would have played out, but getting a first down on that fake would have been another punch in the mouth. A TD after the fake could have changed the game.


There was so much grabbing by Saints DBs that went ignored that it certainly had the feel of a predetermined outcome. Or that the results were being pushed in a certain direction. We saw it against the Eagles last year too. The secondary was the weakness of both teams. Yet somehow both units, Eagles last year and Saints this year, were able to keep the Rams superb trio of receivers in check, well enough to win. There is no way the Saints only committed one penalty in that game, just like there was no way Trumaine Johnson should have been ejected against Philly. I hope Brees doesn’t announce his retirement. If so the Saints are a lock to win it all.

 

[Mojo Ram]

Joyner's play has been as bad or worse than Peters, and he's getting paid more and didn't get traded or change D schemes in the offseason.

Agreed. I'm not sharing this growing opinion that Suh is ineffective, but Joyner and Peters are hurting us big time. Bad coverage, bad tackling, mental lapses. Minus Talib there's no leadership in our secondary.

 

[poLARizing]

To me, it was the tackling. They had opportunities to stop them on 3rd down and they just slipped away - all arm tackling. I hope they let Joyner walk and not tag him. We need a physical safety back there.

 

[gabriel18]

You can't keep playing from behind and win all the close games . The Saints took the foot off the pedal till the game was tied , and then put 10 points on them in two drives . 7-2 if GB doesn't fumble the KO

 

[FrantikRam]

Oddly, I'm not so worried about the defense. The first half was beyond horrible, yes.

But think about it - aside from the one play to Thomas, given who and where we were playing, that 2nd half might have been the best performance of the season by our defense. And that without a sack or turnover - really highlights the lengths teams are going to to mitigate Donald and Suh.

The reason we ultimately lost was the offense IMO.

38-35 and we have the ball with 6 minutes to go. That's all you can ask for - a chance for your best unit to shine and win the game.

And somehow we go 3 and out and punt for the first time. With two open WRs on first and third down that we missed and a terrible call on 2nd and 10 by McVay to run the ball. And then even after the D gives up the Thomas TD, there was plenty of time left for this offense that moves at light speed - yet we inexplicably have to use a timeout, and then can't convert a 4th and 2? Against the Saints near league worst pass defense? Yikes.

Ultimately, the reason we lost this game is because the offense picked up a total of about 15 yards on their last two drives when we were still very much in the game.

 

[OC_Ram]

Going undefeated was unrealistic. It’s only been done once and that was 46 years ago. This team will address the issues on D and be better for it. The monkey is off their backs.

Go Rams Go

BTW - we knew this was going to be an O show. If you weren’t sure at the start you knew at the half. How can we go 3 and out when Saints kicked a field goal to go up by 3 with 6 minutes on the clock?

This should have been an area you CAN control...... but we didn’t.