New Orleans Saints quarterly report: Status at the first quarter pole

Los Angeles Rams

Then the Saints moved out west, literally. Since they played the Los Angeles Rams and the Seattle Seahawks in consecutive weeks, they decided to just stay on the West Coast for the week between games.

The Rams game was seen by many as a revenge game, but it seemed the Saints were simply looking at it as another contest against a good team. A team that went to last year’s Super Bowl. They played us tough in the NFC Championship game and we knew they would be tough again.

The game became even tougher when after the second series Drew Brees was lost to a torn ligament in the thumb of his throwing hand. Teddy Bridgewater came in the game in relief and as would be expected the timing was a bit off. And it just can’t be off when facing such a dangerous team.

The teams exchanged body blows most of the first half. The half was punctuated by an officiating gaffe, again. Cam Jordan picked up a Jared Goff fumble (forced by Trey Hendrickson) and took it for an apparent touchdown. But the officials had blown the play dead because they ruled the play an incomplete pass. The Saints challenged and it was indeed a fumble, not an incomplete pass and once again officiating incompetence cost us points.

This time it didn’t cost the game, though it may have been interesting to see what may have happened if that score counted. The Rams came out stronger in the second half.

After the Saints tied the game, the Rams scored two touchdowns. We were only scoring field goals and not stopping them, so we ended up on the short end of that stick, 27-9.