Rams/Saints - A Forgotten Rivalry

This week brings a level of excitement for older fans who remembers the old NFC West. The Rams (and the 49ers) are forgotten rivals to us.

We had a lot of interesting games with the Rams over the years back in the NFC West. I don't think they ever gave us older fans the level of absolute hatred like the 49ers did. The 49ers mostly demolished us twice a year. The Rams often were winnable divisional games and we had a lot of fun close games with them, along with some absolutely frustrating ones.

This is the most important game between the Saints and Rams since the 2000 season when we met in the playoffs.

Some interesting games from the past -

At New Orleans 1984 - For many people, this is the one game that sums up the Bum Philips era as our worst loss. This game was simple for the Saints; win and you're in the playoffs. This is "that game". The one where the Rams offense only accounted for 3 points and we lost 26-24. They scored 23 points off a safety; punt return and 2 INTs returned for touchdowns. In the end, Bum punted and dared them to beat his defense. All they needed was one big play to get into field goal range.

At New Orleans 1989 - The infamous Flipper Anderson game. The Rams came back from a 17-3 deficit to force OT and eventually win 20-17. Jim Everett threw for 400+ yards and over 300 of those yards went to one receiver; Anderson. The most sad thing about this game is losing it, erased one of those cool highlight plays from Dalton Hilliard where he threw a bomb TD to Eric Martin. This would be the last time we lost to the Rams until 1993.

At New Orleans 1994 - Anyone remember Tyrone Hughes? This is the game where we practically beat the Rams with him. Despite the 37-34 shoot out win, this was actually a beat down game most of the day. Saints were up by 17 points when the Rams scored another TD and later had a punt return go all the way back for another TD. Tyrone Hughes saved the day for us.

At St Louis 2000 - The beginning of our success against the GSOT. This was our first win against them and on the road; 31-24. The Rams were a shell of their former selves in 2000 facing a 1st place schedule for a change and struggling. The Saints were up 21-10 at half time and though the Rams came back, they couldn't do anything in the 4th quarter. Trent Green started this game for the Rams.

At New Orleans 2000 - The big one! The big playoff win and for all of us old timers, the biggest win in franchise history before 2009. We all know how this went; Aaron Brooks played the game of his life in the playoffs, the defense did a good job holding off the Rams pass attack and we were up 31-7...then the Rams started clawing back at the lead. They had a chance with 2 minutes to go down only by 3 until HAKIM DROPPED THE BALL!!

At St Louis 2001 - My favorite game against the GSOT. If this had been a playoff game, you would hear about it a lot. The Rams blew an 18 point lead to us in a game that they had mostly won at halftime. Down 24-6, Brooks threw a TD pass to shorten the lead but the game really got out of hand with the Rams not running the ball. Missing Marshall Faulk, the Rams only ran 16 times in this game. Warner had 47 pass attempts and where the game took a .360 spin in momentum was the interceptions in the second half. He went on to throw 4 interceptions in this game and the Rams lost the lead by the end of the 4th. We won 34-31 and we were one of only two teams to beat them in 2001. The other team was Tampa Bay. This game showed that Mike Martz was a beatable coach. They had no desire to run the ball after going up by a big lead.

At St Louis 2004 - The first non-divisional rivalry game between the two, yet it totally felt like one. The Saints won this in OT 28-25. A back and forth game that went into OT. Come 2004, the GSOT was mostly a retirement home and finished. Their last hurrah was 2003.

At New Orleans 2007 - A humiliating loss to a winless Rams team with our former coach Haslett on the defensive staff. They beat us down in this game, jumping out to a 34-7 lead. The most embarrassing loss of the year. The Rams finished 3-13 that year and we were their first win.

At St Louis 2009 - This game is on here for two reasons; the Rams played us tough on this day like an old division rivalry game and they arguably came the closest to beating us in 2009 before Washington. Despite being 1-7 going into this game, the Rams played us so tough and so close, they had a chance to win in the end. This was Marc Bulger's best game in 2009 and they almost beat us on the final drive, but we held out to win 28-23.

At St Louis 2011 - Oh god, this game. The worst game of 2011. The Rams like 2007, were winless going into this game. We had just got finished scrubbing the floor and running up the score on the tanking Colts. The Rams broke out their throwbacks for this game and processed to beat us down. They sacked Brees 6 times and completely rendered us useless on third down. Despite the final score being closer at 21-31, this felt like a blow out loss. The Rams went 2-14 in 2011.

At St Louis 2013 - This game is here for being our first game against our former DC Gregg Williams and was one of those games in 2013 that illustrated what a Jekyll and Hyde team we were on the road vs how we played at home. We lost 27-16 in a game where Brees heroics could only do so much as we struggled with the run.

At New Orleans 2016 - Did you know Jeff Fisher had an undefeated record vs the Saints? Until this game! Our first win against Fisher and beating down our former DC Gregg Williams. We won 49-21. This was one of Jared Goff's few better games in 2016 when many of us thought he was going to be a major bust going forward.

At L.A. 2017 - Last year's loss is notable as our first game in L.A. since the 1994 season. It's a forgettable loss at 20-26 except for that one little noteworthy piece of history.

At New Orleans 2018 - ???????


I enjoyed our rivalry with the Rams back in the day. They were frustrating but never to the level of the 49ers, as we all tended to play second fiddle in the NFC West back in the day. The Rams at least gave us the best quarterback we had of the Mora years; Jim Everett. Those 2 years with Everett in 1994-1995 were fun and he's a player I will always have respect for in terms of being an underrated QB and a likable personality. Things were heated with the GSOT and I hope come Sunday, we have another chapter of a memorable game to write in.