Wasted opportunities. If your defense is setting the tone, you must get some points on the board. More than just FGs. The Rams may be having an average season, but there HC can hang with the best of them, if you give him opportunities to win the game. Do you agree?
Yep. No disagreements there. The Saints had some opportunities early to set the course of the game. The defense forced a 3-and-out on its first drive, and the Saints responded with really healthy drive of their own.
The Fuaga penalty was an absolute killer. It helped stalemate the half and allow the Rams to claw their way back and reclaim the momentum. But while it was another close game lost on the back of missed opportunities, I will say that the feel and the outcome of it was still different than those close losses under DA.
I wouldn't lay it all at Rizzi's feet. I thought the game was managed well in terms of the flow and the tempo. The decision to go in that direction wasn't necessarily a bad one, just the players didn't do enough make it right (Fuaga, in particular).
If that 2nd drive finishes in a TD (rather than missed FG), the Saints might win this game by two scores.