A marquee matchup between division leaders takes place in the NFC on Sunday as the New Orleans Saints (8-2) travel to California to take on the Los Angeles Rams (7-3).
The Saints have won eight in a row after starting the season 0-2 to become just the second team in NFL history to achieve that, and the first one to do it in the Super Bowl era.
The Rams, on the other hand, are just one win away from their first non-losing season since 2006 when they went 8-8 while in St. Louis, Missouri.
The Saints and Rams pass defenses are evenly matched but teams have at least been able to run the ball against the Rams and in the end, that will favor quarterback Drew Brees. As the Saints establish the run Brees will be able to use play action fakes to keep the Rams defense off balance.
The Saint running game ranks third in the league and they will use it to soften the Rams defense (ranked 28th against the run) and open the passing game for Drew Brees.
The one-two punch of running backs Mark Ingram and Alvin Kamara has been outstanding for the Saints during their win streak so you can expect the Saints to ride them early and often in this pivotal matchup. While Ingram likes to run inside as he’s the power guy of this duo, Kamara is the elusive back who can find the cracks and run between the tackles.
Ingram has rushed for 636 yards and eight touchdowns since week 5 (both rank him first in the NFL in that span), while Kamara is a great pass-catching option out of the backfield who ranks second among NFL running backs with 446 receiving yards.
If the Rams defense allows this two-headed monster to roam free on Sunday, it doesn’t matter how many yards quarterback Jared Goff passes for, Los Angeles will fall to 7-4.
This will be the stiffest test to date for head coach Sean Payton and the Saints since they began their eight-game win streak both because of the opponent and because the Saints defense is really banged up as several players are nursing injuries.
In last week’s 34-31 victory against the Washington Redskins, they lost defensive end Alex Okafor, who was having a terrific season, to a torn Achilles. Cornerback Marshon Lattimore, a front-runner for defensive rookie of the year, will also sit down the match with the Rams as he recovers from an ankle injury.
Fortunately for the Saints, middle linebacker A.J Kline and safety Kenny Vaccaro are expected to play after missing the Redskins game.
With all these injuries the Saints can take solace in the fact that Rams WR Robert Woods will miss the game with a shoulder injury. In the last three weeks, Woods had 16 receptions for 332 yards and four touchdowns and Goff will miss him greatly.
