Rams find multiple ways to beat Saints  

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The Los Angeles Rams found a variety of ways to win another ballgame. That’s a good thing. To control their destiny in making the playoffs, the Rams must take matters into their own hands. 

Beating the New Orleans Saints was a start. With remaining games on their schedule against the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers, the Rams can only control what they can control.   

The Rams handled their business against the Saints coming away with a 30-22 win. The Rams now have won five of their last six games since their Week 10 bye.  

But they didn’t make win No. 8 easy. The Rams looked like they were going to run away and hide from the Saints after building a 30-7 lead early in the fourth quarter. New Orleans then outscored the Rams 15-0 rest of the way to make the game closer than it should have been.   

“We sure make it interesting, don’t we? But I love the resilience of this group,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said during a postgame press conference. “They just continue to show up. Thought there was a lot of really good stuff throughout the course of this game. 

“Matthew Stafford was outstanding. Kyren Williams did a great job. I thought DeMarcus Robinson and Puka were big time from the very beginning. And I thought the offensive line came ready to go. You could see on the first run of the game the removal that they were able to create. Defensively, we played really well.” 

There’s a lot to dissect in this win for the Rams. The defensive unit made several critical stops in the game. Jordan Fuller came up with a key interception off New Orleans quarterback Derek Carr. The Rams made the Saints’ offense miserable for three and a half quarters. 

The Thursday Night Football game between the Rams and the Saints was supposed to be a rugged, physical game that would likely come down to the wire. 

That didn’t happen. Not really. The Rams settled that debate. Both teams came into this matchup needing to win to keep their playoff hopes afloat. The Rams stayed on track. The Saints saw their postseason aspirations temporarily get knocked off the rails.  

“I think the biggest thing is we’ve got two divisional games left to play and so our focus is going to be on trying to win those two divisional games and then we’ll let everything play out from there,” New Orleans head coach Dennis Allen said. 

On the other side of the ball, Kyren Williams went over the century mark in yet another game. In the five games he has played in since he returned from an ankle injury, Williams has rushed for 100 yards or more four times. He rushed for 104 yards on 22 carries against the Saints. 

Williams also achieved the magical marker of going over 1,000 yards rushing in a season (1,057 yards), something a Rams running back has not done since Todd Gurley did it in 2018.    

“No doubt, we’re different when he plays,” McVay remarked. “I mean, you just look at it. I mean, now there’s enough inventory and the energy, the production, just the overall work ethic. I mean, there are so many guys on this team that you just say, man, they are exactly what we’re looking for in Rams. I love him and I’m really so proud of the way that he responded. And he did that last week in the game. We saw him respond in the game.” 

Quarterback Matthew Stafford went about his business to throw dimes to Puka Nacua, Demarcus Robinson, and Cooper Kupp all night. Stafford completed 24 of 34 passes for 328 yards and touchdown passes to Nacua and Demarcus Robinson. 

The 30 points the Rams put up against New Orleans marks the fifth straight week in which Los Angeles has scored 28 or more points.  

“Yeah, it’s fun to score,” Stafford said. “ think we could have had 40 tonight in my opinion. There were quite a few plays here and there that just didn’t go our way or we didn’t hit. But that’s part of it, played a defense that’s going to play sticky coverage. Sometimes they’re not going to hit all of them.”  

The Saints’ defense had no real answers to slow down or stop the Rams on the offensive end. The Rams finished the game with 458 yards in total offense.