Rams come to New Orleans empty handed on offense, will the secondary show out against a depleted unit?

Another abysmal outing for this New Orleans Saints team Sunday leaves them down in dumps at a record of 3-7 on the year. This week they will face an equally disappointing team in the Los Angeles Rams, who haven’t seemed to figure themselves out either.

And it doesn’t look like it will get any better going forward...

Specifically in the passing game, the Rams have been one of the worst teams in football through the air. Something that you would’ve never even imagined just a year ago. The team is currently ranked 21st in the league in passing YPG, 26th in total passing touchdowns (9) and tied for the third most interceptions thrown with 9. They’ve also been bottom five as far as explosive plays of both 20+ and 40+ yard gains. These rankings don’t look they will change any time soon either with the current injury news of their better players. Quarterback Matthew Stafford as of Tuesday, remained in concussion protocol leaving his status in question for Sunday. Their All-Pro receiver Cooper Kupp will also not be available for the rest of the season after suffering a high ankle sprain against Arizona, one that will require surgery. This along with a couple of major blows to their offensive line has left their team in complete disarray.

Photo by John McCoy/Getty Images

On the Saints side of things, going into this week the team ranks in the bottom third of the league in passing yards and touchdowns allowed, which makes sense as teams haven’t really done much through the air against them the past three weeks. Penalties and missed tackles have been the most gut-wrenching aspects of this secondary’s season. The defense as a whole missed 14 tackles this past Sunday at Pittsburgh, their highest total of the season. This is something that has continued through this point, and it doesn’t seem to get any better. As far as injuries, it doesn’t seem like Marshon Lattimore will be available once again however, there is a possibility the team will get Marcus Maye back for this game. At this point though, it doesn’t seem to matter who’s down for the week as this team’s issues go beyond injuries.

Photo by Mark Alberti/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

On to the game, for the Rams not having Cooper Kupp is going to be an enormous loss as he was having another spectacular season. Outside of him their other weapons have been almost non-existent. Allen Robinson, their newly high-priced free agent has only 29 catches for 292 yards on the year. Van Jefferson, who just came back from injury a couple weeks ago hasn’t done much of anything since his return. Their biggest threat outside of those two is tight end Tyler Higbee who’s caught 44 balls for 385 yards. Once again, the Saints shouldn’t in “theory” have trouble against the pass but like I said last week nothing will surprise you with this team at this point. It’s hard to expect certain things from this team when the talent level isn’t matching the play week in and week out. This will be another week of wait and see what happens for this team.

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