Football Outsiders' Analysis of Saints O-Line vs. Rams
 

Quote:

New Orleans’ loss to St. Louis certainly qualified as the biggest upset of Week 8, if not the entire season. Going into the game the Rams were winless and ranked dead last in Total DVOA, while the Saints were coming off a 62-7 victory over the hapless Colts. It certainly seemed as if the Saints were a team that could handle the bottom feeders of the NFL easily. Well, as the saying goes: "that’s why they play the games." When you watch the tape play-by-play, the one thing that sticks out is how close the Saints were to making plays. It seemed like once a drive Darren Sproles just got tripped up, Drew Brees got hit just as he was releasing the ball to an open receiver, or a fullback just missed a block on a linebacker that would’ve sprung Pierre Thomas. That’s typical of these kinds of upsets: for whatever reason, the favored team just can’t seem to make the plays they typically make. New Orleans’ offensive line was certainly a big part of it.

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FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS: Innovative Statistics, Intelligent Analysis | Word of Muth: A Saintly Stumble

Another fantastic analysis of the Saints.

Something more than amiss here. Do you think that the holding noted in other threads had something to do with it? And if it is "legal", why aren't our d-linemen doing it, too??? I'm not saying, I'm just saying.

It's not legal, it just doesn't get called all the time but I have seen the Saints get called for it.

Holding to allow LBs to blitz aint nothing knew.we were slow and listless...they better pick up their game this week..or Drew will have to chuck it again and sometimes to the wrong team.

That was how I felt about that game. Close to making plays. In the first half it was close to popping, about to start sizzling any minute, but they just never quite got enough heat to get it going. Then later after that little burst of Rams scoring it sorta turned into WTF is going on.