Halo

Absolutely not. The Rams loss was actually the key motivation that eventually made the 2011 Saints better than the 2009.
The Rams were the better team that day.

The first half of the season our defense was "suspect" at best before and during the Rams game.
During the Rams game our o-line was decimated with injuries at 3 positions and exposed Drew Brees.

A week before the Rams game our starting center Olin Kreutz essentially quit football.

The Rams game changed everything for the 2011 Saints. The defense reorganized and came back stronger. The o-line reorganized and returned to send 2 players to the pro-bowl.

Drew Brees didn't throw an INT after that game for 7 straight weeks.

We were 5 - 3 after the loss to the Rams and we ripped up 8 straight wins, mostly with increasingly larger margins of victory that built up like a train, to finish 13 and 3.

By the time we played Carolina last week, our team on all 3 phases of the game was not recognizable compared to the Rams game.