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It’s almost a given each year that some NFL team will turn the proverbial corner of mediocrity and become the surprise team of the league. Sometimes it happens because of acquiring a few key players through the draft and free agency. But at other times the ‘Cinderella’ change happens because an entirely different style and philosophy has been incorporated into a franchise… one which all players and personnel buy into and work hard to implement. For the 2017 NFL season, that team was the Los Angeles Rams.
The conclusion of the 2016 NFL season saw the newly relocated Rams finish near the bottom of the NFC barrel. A change was definitely needed, and for the Rams this came (primarily) in the form of a new leader… the young and determined head coach Sean McVay. The improvements to that team came swiftly and the results were immediate in that their (regular season) record went from a 4-12; 3rd place divisional finish in 2016 to an 11-5; 1st place divisional finish in 2017 with some postseason action to boot.
No one could deny that this coaching acquisition was the right move for the Rams. The comparisons to other successful coaches began to pour in for McVay, including to the ‘genius’ of our own Sean Payton. When you consider that Coach McVay’s first test against our Saints was a successful one despite the fact that were riding an 8 game winning streak at the time, there is no doubt that even in his first season this bright young coach would not be intimidated by even the tougher teams on his schedule.
As fans, we look at the list of opponents when our new schedule is released and attach those mental ‘Ws & Ls’ next to each opponent; which we generally base on our own perception of these teams. I think it is safe to say that the majority here were not too quick to add a ‘W’ to this one. The Rams were in fact one of the teams that made us consider this current stretch of games as the ‘killer’ portion of our 2018 season. And nothing that we’ve seen up to this point would change that assessment much... if at all.
But don’t think that this Sunday wasn’t a ‘red letter’ date in the mind of Coach Payton either. While it is obvious that our preseason matchup with the Rams this year would not reveal any ‘secrets’ by either team, you have to believe that the mental game-planning by both head coaches began long before that preseason ‘tune-up’ game kicked off.
Through the early weeks of any season, coaches around the league begin to assess what they really have in their stable of players, and they work hard to make adjustments on their rosters to give their team the best chance to win football games. Of course due to injuries the ‘weapons’ available for a particular game are likely to change. But in general the perceived strengths & weaknesses at each position are factored into the ‘plan of attack’. It would be hard to imagine as the final seconds of our victory in Minnesota ticked away on Sunday night that Coach Payton was not already thinking about the L.A. Rams.
Though my puny football knowledge cannot imagine the entire mental chess match that is taking place within these two coaching staffs, you’ve got to recognize that somewhere between ‘execution & intangibles’ lies a brilliant gameplan that will emerge from one of these two organizations that will assert the superiority of one team over the other and allow that team to exit the Superdome gridiron with a decided advantage in the NFC playoff race. So… who will have the right recipe for what may be one of the most important mid-season showdowns in recent NFL history? Well that, my friends, is the question.
Since a loss this Sunday wouldn’t completely derail the season of either one of these contenders, it would probably be best not to over-value a win this week. Doing so might make you feel like you're living in a real-life Gameday thread. But no one would argue how incredibly huge such a win would be for either of these teams. For the Saints it would keep the beacon of a #1 seed and ‘Dome field advantage’ throughout the playoffs brightly lit. For the Rams it would keep the cork of Miami’s celebratory champagne firmly in place as they try to claw their way to an improbable 2nd perfect season in NFL history.
But make no mistake about it, both of these teams want this one badly. Both of these ‘genius’ coaches are too prideful to give anything less than maximum effort in using all the tools at their disposal to pull out what could become a season-defining victory. Yet no matter how things turn out Sunday, we still have good reasons to be proud of our team, and we certainly have justification for anticipating plenty of good things to come in 2018. Buckle yourself in tightly! Sunday is going to be a wild ride!
Geaux Saints!
The conclusion of the 2016 NFL season saw the newly relocated Rams finish near the bottom of the NFC barrel. A change was definitely needed, and for the Rams this came (primarily) in the form of a new leader… the young and determined head coach Sean McVay. The improvements to that team came swiftly and the results were immediate in that their (regular season) record went from a 4-12; 3rd place divisional finish in 2016 to an 11-5; 1st place divisional finish in 2017 with some postseason action to boot.
No one could deny that this coaching acquisition was the right move for the Rams. The comparisons to other successful coaches began to pour in for McVay, including to the ‘genius’ of our own Sean Payton. When you consider that Coach McVay’s first test against our Saints was a successful one despite the fact that were riding an 8 game winning streak at the time, there is no doubt that even in his first season this bright young coach would not be intimidated by even the tougher teams on his schedule.
As fans, we look at the list of opponents when our new schedule is released and attach those mental ‘Ws & Ls’ next to each opponent; which we generally base on our own perception of these teams. I think it is safe to say that the majority here were not too quick to add a ‘W’ to this one. The Rams were in fact one of the teams that made us consider this current stretch of games as the ‘killer’ portion of our 2018 season. And nothing that we’ve seen up to this point would change that assessment much... if at all.
But don’t think that this Sunday wasn’t a ‘red letter’ date in the mind of Coach Payton either. While it is obvious that our preseason matchup with the Rams this year would not reveal any ‘secrets’ by either team, you have to believe that the mental game-planning by both head coaches began long before that preseason ‘tune-up’ game kicked off.
Through the early weeks of any season, coaches around the league begin to assess what they really have in their stable of players, and they work hard to make adjustments on their rosters to give their team the best chance to win football games. Of course due to injuries the ‘weapons’ available for a particular game are likely to change. But in general the perceived strengths & weaknesses at each position are factored into the ‘plan of attack’. It would be hard to imagine as the final seconds of our victory in Minnesota ticked away on Sunday night that Coach Payton was not already thinking about the L.A. Rams.
Though my puny football knowledge cannot imagine the entire mental chess match that is taking place within these two coaching staffs, you’ve got to recognize that somewhere between ‘execution & intangibles’ lies a brilliant gameplan that will emerge from one of these two organizations that will assert the superiority of one team over the other and allow that team to exit the Superdome gridiron with a decided advantage in the NFC playoff race. So… who will have the right recipe for what may be one of the most important mid-season showdowns in recent NFL history? Well that, my friends, is the question.
Since a loss this Sunday wouldn’t completely derail the season of either one of these contenders, it would probably be best not to over-value a win this week. Doing so might make you feel like you're living in a real-life Gameday thread. But no one would argue how incredibly huge such a win would be for either of these teams. For the Saints it would keep the beacon of a #1 seed and ‘Dome field advantage’ throughout the playoffs brightly lit. For the Rams it would keep the cork of Miami’s celebratory champagne firmly in place as they try to claw their way to an improbable 2nd perfect season in NFL history.
But make no mistake about it, both of these teams want this one badly. Both of these ‘genius’ coaches are too prideful to give anything less than maximum effort in using all the tools at their disposal to pull out what could become a season-defining victory. Yet no matter how things turn out Sunday, we still have good reasons to be proud of our team, and we certainly have justification for anticipating plenty of good things to come in 2018. Buckle yourself in tightly! Sunday is going to be a wild ride!
Geaux Saints!