The New Orleans Saints falling to the Los Angeles Rams was one of the most predictable outcomes of the weekend, and it went about the way that most expected it. The Rams dominated New Orleans and won by 24 points. One surprise is the pregame storyline was all about Tyler Shough and his debut. It ended up being less of a story because he barely touched the ball.
The Saints only possessed the ball for 16 minutes and 7 seconds. Let's use a couple points of reference to explain how disheartening that is. NewOrleans.Football revealed on social media that the Saints' time of possession was the 13th lowest in NFL history. Not good company.
A quarter is 15 minutes, so the Saints essentially held the ball for a quarter of football.Let's use one last reference point. While the Saints had a total time of possession of 16:07, the Rams held the ball for the first 9 minutes and 42 seconds of the second half.
Saints offense and defense have to take blame for this result
It's easy to point to the defense because they couldn't get off the field, but the Saints offense couldn't stay on the field either. As mentioned earlier, the Saints allowed a nearly 10 minute drive fresh out of halftime. It was 16 play drive that went for 80 yards. Three plays later, the Saints defense was right back on the field after an Alvin Kamara fumble.
The result? The Rams held the ball for about nearly six and a half more minutes on their next drive for a touchdown. You took a defense that was gassed from a long drive, and put them right back on the field. What did you think was going to happen?
Defense is the easy target as their inability to stop the Rams from throwing or running made it way too easy for the Rams to slice the Saints up. The offense won't get away blame free though. They had 5 drives of three plays. You won't get a good time of possession if you can't stay on the field.
The worst part about barely holding the ball is you don't really get an idea of who Tyler Shough is. Shough threw the ball 24 times, but he didn't get to show a lot. There just weren't a lot of opportunities in situations that weren't 2 minute drill or comeback offense. Outside of just being terrible product, the biggest downside of the Saints' lack of ball control is taking snaps away from Shough.