New Orleans Saints

Observations From The Cheap Seats

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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It started out as a pas de deux, but ended up as a solo performance. The New Orleans Saints danced with the Los Angeles Rams in the first half, allowing them to best their normal points per game total.

After that, the Who Dats decided they’d had enough partner dancing and went solo, completely dominating the second half en route to a 49-21 Saints victory. 49 is the most offensive points scored by any NFL team this season.

Life against the Rams hasn’t been good for the Black and Gold. In the Sean Payton era, the Saints were 2-3 against the Rams, who’d always featured a tenacious front 7 on defense. Additionally, Payton hadn’t beaten Jeff Fisher in his career. Payton lost to Fisher once when he coached the Tennessee Titans in 2007, and again as he coached the St. Louis Rams in 2013. Sunday was to be different, though. The Rams current defensive coordinator is Gregg Williams – yes, THAT Gregg Williams.

More from Who Dat Dish

In case you slept through 2012, a refresher – Gregg Williams had been the architect of our Super Bowl winning defense in 2009. Williams, a loquacious and braggadocious coach, was also the architect of the bounty program at the center of “Bountygate”, the pay for hits program that cost Payton a year of his career, as well as sanctions falling on the team and several players. The scoop seems to be that Williams didn’t stick to the script when the NFL came calling to inquire about the program and Williams’ loose lips sunk the Saints. It seems that Sean Payton held a special dislike for Williams. That may have influenced Sunday’s game.

The game was back and forth early. The Rams offensive line looked even better than advertised and the defensive line, particularly Aaron Donald, blew up plays. Early on, it looked very much like the matchups the Saints continually seem to have with the Rams. Only difference being we got up to 28 points by the half, which is more than we normally score against them. The second half was all Saints. Offensively they opened the playbook and found plays that hadn’t seen the light of day in some time. Defensively not only did they get to Jared Goff, but they only allowed 60 yards of offense to the Rams in the second half. It was nice to see the Saints on the positive side of a tail whipping for once.

Observations from the Cheap Seats:

Overall a solid win and a confidence booster.

Saints are now 5-6 with a date with Detroit this coming Sunday. Detroit has ascended to the lead in the NFC North, which has taken several steps back with Minnesota flailing and Green Bay playing no defense this season. In all reality, the Saints would need to win out and get help to have any playoff shot. That’s the bad news.

The good news is looking at the rest of the season, it’s possible. No one is overwhelmingly better than the Black and Gold. But it will be difficult to beat Tampa twice, and Atlanta is still one of the better NFC teams. Atlanta is the only team that we’ve lost to that truly beat us up. The other good news is so many of the teams that are in front of the Saints have to play division foes also and could end up beating each other up. It’s all still a long shot, but it’s good for the NFL that with 5 weeks left in the regular season, there’s only one team completely eliminated from the playoff picture and another 2-3 that are likely out. Everyone else is at least in the picture, and that’s the parity the NFL loves.

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