Saints knew they couldn’t stop everyone, so they focused on Todd Gurley
 

The Saints gave up 483 yards and 35 points in Sunday’s win over the Rams, but the game did feature one big win for their defense.

They held Rams running back Todd Gurley to a season-low 79 yards from scrimmage — he averaged over 143 yards in the first eight weeks of the year — and players from the unit said after the game that slowing Gurley was the key to their plan for Sunday’s game. Gurley made some plays and scored a touchdown, but defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins said not allowing “him to really wreck this game was big for us."

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...n-todd-gurley/

Re: Saints knew they couldn’t stop everyone, so they focused on Todd Gurley
 

Saints D held a stud RB to 68 yards rushing & 11 fricken yards (1.83 avg) receiving?? I'll take that everyday of the week.

I guess that #1 Saints run defense is legit huh?

Re: Saints knew they couldn’t stop everyone, so they focused on Todd Gurley
 

That was the proper strategy and I'm glad we executed it fairly well yesterday!

Re: Saints knew they couldn’t stop everyone, so they focused on Todd Gurley
 

I get a kick out of the comments to the article that say 1-everyone says you can't let their best player beat you and 2-why tell the Rams what your strategy was.

The real difference yesterday is that the Saints were able to execute their defensive game plan to stop Gurley. Not all teams can. Didn't matter if the Rams knew that going in or not because they probably figured it out pretty quick. They just couldn't do anything to get Gurley back in the game. 11 yards on 6 pass receptions. Considering his long reception went for 8 yards means the other 5 netted a total of 3 yards. That is spooky good.