The NFC Championship is set and like many expected, the Los Angeles Rams will take on the New Orleans Saints on Sunday. The two teams met in the regular season back on November 4th and the Saints came out victorious 45-35 in that meeting. The Rams suffered their first loss of the season that afternoon and came back down to earth after the defeat leading to a 13-3 regular season finish. Unfortunately, that was not enough to claim home-field advantage as the Saints, who also finished 13-3, owned the tiebreaker.
Despite the defeat earlier in the season, the Rams are a much different team this time around. The addition of C.J. Anderson and the return of Aqib Talib from injury will help the Rams immensely. However, the biggest area of focus for the Rams will be how to slow down Drew Brees. The future Hall of Famer torched the Rams in their last meeting for 346 passing yards and four touchdowns. If the Rams want to advance to the Super Bowl, they will have to gameplan accordingly.
Pressuring Drew Brees is Key for a Los Angeles Rams Victory
Game Rewind
As mentioned, the two teams faced one another on November 4th and Brees had a fantastic performance. He finished 25-36 with 346 passing yards, four touchdowns and a completion percentage of 69. The biggest takeaway from that game is that Brees went the entire game without being sacked. A lot of credit goes to the offensive line, as well as to Brees himself because he is one of the better quarterbacks at getting the ball out in under 2.5 seconds.
Wade Phillips’ defense all year pressured opposing quarterbacks as they finished the season with 41 total sacks. Defensive tackle Aaron Donald had a career year after leading the league with 20.5 sacks. Yet, both Donald and the star-studded defensive line were neutralized in the previous matchup. They struggled to slow down the running game as well as Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara combined for 115 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries.
The Saints benefitted from the Rams slow start that game. After both teams traded two touchdowns a piece, a missed field goal, a turnover on downs and an interception really put the Rams behind the eight-ball. The Saints held a comfortable 35-17 lead at the half. While the Rams did score 18 unanswered points to tie the game in the fourth, it was not enough as the Saints scored 10 unanswered points of their own to close out the game.
Taking Note From a Former Team
Phillips once served as the Dallas Cowboys head coach and he could learn a thing or two based on the Cowboys performance earlier this year against the Saints. Dallas shocked the football world after they defeated New Orleans 13-10 on November 29th. The key was pressuring Brees and forcing him to be uncomfortable in the pocket. The Cowboys only got to Brees twice for a sack but were able to lay seven quarterback takedowns. Dallas mixed up their looks and brought pressure from a variety of different places. One of the most effective was pressure up the middle as seen here.
Cowboys defense in the clutch! ?
Dallas intercepts Drew Brees late in the 4th quarter #NOvsDAL pic.twitter.com/OwQ95WEw1L
— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) November 30, 2018
TV Analyst Troy Aikman said it best, Brees really struggled all game with pressure up the middle. With defensive tackles like Donald and Ndamukong Suh, Phillips should look to create one-on-one scenarios for them so they can bring the pressure.
However, like most of the elite quarterbacks in the league, Brees is smart enough to adjust if you keep giving him the same look. The Cowboys were able to mix up their blitz packages and coverages throughout the game. Here the Cowboys used a zone blitz concept bringing the weakside corner and linebacker and dropped the strong side defensive end into a zone over the middle.
YES – #Cowboys CB Brown gets to Brees on slot blitz as sack giving Dallas D a good down distance #NOvsDAL 10-13 pic.twitter.com/VZyTpHzcBq
— Steven Van Over (@StevenVanOver) November 30, 2018
This confused the offensive line as you see two linemen blocking the same rusher. Expect Phillips to use a few zone blitzes with linebackers Cory Littleton, Mark Barron and cornerback Nickell Robey-Coleman.
Attacking the Soft Spot
Saints left guard Andrus Peat has been inconsistent in pass blocking and suffered a broken hand in the final regular season game. During the bye week, he had surgery on his hand but will continue to play through the injury. Against the Eagles, Peat had a shaky performance. An upcoming matchup versus Suh and Donald sounds like a lot of trouble for the Saints protection scheme. Look for the Rams to not only attack Peat with their best interior pass rushers but to also bring edge rushers Dante Fowler Jr and Samson Ebukam on inside stunts and players from the secondary to confuse the pre-snap look.
The Last Word
Despite the loss in the first matchup, the Rams are a much different team this time around. Defensively, the return of Talib should allow Phillips to mix up the coverages and key in on star receiver Michael Thomas. Fowler Jr. played his first game as a Ram back on November fourth and now with eight games under his belt, expect his impact to be greater than the first time the two teams met. The Rams have all the personnel to shut down Brees but it will come down to executing in a hostile environment such as the Superdome. If they can do that, Los Angeles will advance to the Super Bowl.
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