Saints, Rams Week 9: Observations from the cheap seats

Observations: Part 1

The home fans in the Dome have been treated to new music when the Saints score TDs. Don’t fret fans, “Halftime (Stand Up And Get Crunk)” is still the go to song immediately as the team comes in after the PAT. But they’ve only been playing a portion of that song and then augmenting the time the team is lining up for the kickoff (almost always during a TV timeout) with New Orleans music.

A couple of songs heard yesterday: “Still Fly” by the Big Tymers, and “Choppa’ Style” by Choppa featuring Master P. Nice addition.

While the Saints didn’t have any major injuries during the game, several players were banged up a bit. No one needed to be removed from the game due to injury though.

Ben Watson dove for a ball in the first half and didn’t catch it. He immediately came to the sideline with what looked from a distance to be a dislocated finger. The trainers looked like they popped it back in and he was in the game shortly thereafter. Could be that it wasn’t that serious, but the finger didn’t look, normal.

Guard Larry Warford got up once a bit slowly, but he never came out of the game.

Tackle Terron Armstead also was moving a bit slowly during the game. At one point, after a Saints offensive drive, he came to the sidelines and you could see a trainer apply something to a gloved hand and as Armstead sat on the bench, the trainer massaged the gel on his back. That made for an odd visual.

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To say the Saints offensive line played a whale of a game would be a disservice to the phrase. The Saints were facing two of the top defensive linemen over the last 10 years of the game in the Rams’ Ndamukong Suh and Aaron Donald. The team also recently added DE Dante’ Fowler to the line. This is a team built to pressure the QB and be a force up front. But our offensive line neutralized them for the most part. Donald had one tackle for a loss and four hits on Brees, but no sacks. Suh had two total tackles and Fowler had one. That’s strong on our part. They weren’t without challenges, but overall the line was tremendous.

We saw Thomas Morstead punt yesterday. You may feel like that’s odd if you go to Saints games. You’d be correct. That was first time Morstead punted in the dome since Week 2 against Cleveland. He ended up punting twice. Fortunately for us, the Saints offense has made Morstead something of a ghost.

The Rams simply do not have an answer for Alvin Kamara. He had 23 touches for 116 total yards and 3 touchdowns. Last season, Kamara had 11 touches for 188 yards and a TD.  He also has made it a point AGAIN to go right over the top of a would be tackler. I hope everyone understands we’re witnessing something special in Kamara. This isn’t an ordinary cat.