It’s been easy to point the finger at the Rams’ offense for the team’s losses this season. After all, it’s one of the worst offenses in the NFL. However, on Sunday against the Saints, it wasn’t the offense that was solely to blame.
The defense certainly didn’t hold up their end of the bargain.
Despite sacking Andy Dalton and Taysom Hill four times, the defense struggled to slow down the Saints’ offense. Dalton was particularly sharp against the Rams’ coverage, completing 21 of 25 passes for 260 yards and three touchdowns. That’s a stat line you might expect to see from Dalton in 2016, but not 2022.
It’s never a good sign for the defense when a quarterback has almost as many touchdowns (3) as incompletions (4), and it’s not as if that’s a misleading stat. The defense truly couldn’t stop Dalton and the Saints’ receivers.
Chris Olave was particularly effective against the Rams, whether it was Troy Hill or Jalen Ramsey in coverage. He caught five passes for 102 yards and a touchdown, which came on a 53-yard bomb over the head of Ramsey and Taylor Rapp. It’s not the type of play you expect your shutdown cornerback to give up, and it proved to be a back-breaker by putting the Saints up 24-14.
DALTON DEEP TO OLAVE – 53-YARD TD STRIKE!!!!#LARvsNO 📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/OmWF2gwsk5
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) November 20, 2022
Taysom Hill was a problem for the Rams, too. He rushed for 52 yards on just nine carries, physically wearing down the interior of the defense. And, of course, Alvin Kamara did what he normally does, totaling 99 yards on 16 touches.
Part of the problem was the Rams’ inability to get off the field on third down early in the game. They allowed the Saints to convert on four of their first eight third-down attempts. And each time the Saints converted on third down, they wound up scoring a touchdown on the drive.
And as just about all of the Rams’ opponents have this season, the Saints opted for a quick passing game to neutralize Los Angeles’ pass rush. Dalton averaged just 2.16 seconds per throw, the third-fastest time of any quarterback in the NFL this season. This season, the Rams face an average time to throw of only 2.38, by far the lowest in the league.
Four of the five quickest time to throw-marks in a game this season have come against the Rams; all four were not Week 1 starters.
The Rams have faced an average time to throw of 2.38 seconds in 2022, the only defense under 2.60 seconds.#LARvsNO #Saints pic.twitter.com/4dYEejlM8S
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) November 20, 2022
The recipe for facing this Rams defense is obvious: get the ball out quickly and take underneath throws. At times, the bend-don’t-break strategy works, but it didn’t against the Saints.
Giving up 27 points to a team that scored a total of 23 points the last two weeks is unacceptable. And it’s not like the Rams’ offense set up the Saints with great field position by turning it over. Los Angeles didn’t give the ball away once. The Rams’ defense once again went without a takeaway, too.
There’s no question the offense needs to play better, but what do you expect when you’re playing almost half the game without your starting quarterback and the offensive line is down to third-string players at almost every spot? This was a game the defense needed to carry the load, and it failed.
