Rams to Face Master Sackers : Pro football: The Saints lead the NFL with 51 sacks but have had trouble scoring lately.
The New Orleans Saints, one of the most successful sports franchises in recent history to have never won a playoff game, have once again piled up victories, but not plaudits.
Today, the Saints bring their 10-3 record to Anaheim Stadium to face the Rams. They have been at this point in the season before, with impressive records and dominating defenses, only to sputter at the end of the year. Since 1987, the Saints have won 12, 10, nine, eight, 11 and now 10-and-counting regular-season games, but are 0-3 in the playoffs.
This year, after a 2-2 start, New Orleans has eight victories in nine games to clinch at least an NFC wild-card berth.
Recently, the Saint defense has turned its play even higher, and leads the NFL by a comfortable margin with 51 sacks. Three of its players--tackle Wayne Martin (with 14) and linebackers Rickey Jackson (11 1/2) and Pat Swilling (10 1/2)--are among the league’s top 10 sackers.
But the Saints still struggle to score at times.
“I think every game has been tough for us,” Saint Coach Jim Mora said. “We’ve been fortunate to win a pretty good share of them, but none of them have been easy by any sense. We really haven’t blown out anybody.
“We’ve had a lot of very close games--games that have gone down to the final couple of drives--we’ve been very fortunate to hang on and win. Every game’s been a struggle, and I don’t look for that to change.”
One of those close victories came Oct. 11 in the Superdome over the Rams, 13-10, when New Orleans kicker Morten Andersen made a 30-yard field goal with 3:37 to play.
“The name of the game is to win,” Ram Coach Chuck Knox said. “And they do whatever they have to do to win.
“I see in them a lot of ingredients that you’d like to have. They’re a well-disciplined football team. They play very, very hard. And they have won some close games.”
For the Saints, as always, the key ingredients are the pass rush, an offense that doesn’t make many mistakes and Andersen, who has made 23 of 28 field-goal attempts this season, including three of three from 50 yards or more.
But New Orleans probably never will have a potent offense as long as the conservative Mora is the coach and Bobby Hebert (16 touchdown passes, 12 interceptions) is the quarterback.
On Oct. 3, during an eight-point victory over the sagging Atlanta Falcons, the Saint offense could manage no touchdowns. The Saints settled for five field goals by Anderson and a touchdown by the defense. Overall, New Orleans has scored 257 points in 10 victories, compared to San Francisco’s 366 or Dallas’s 324.
“With a Super Bowl team, I think you have to have both an offense and a defense that’s equal to win the big ballgames,” Ram safety Anthony Newman said. “I think that’s what has hurt the Saints in the past. Their defense has tried to carry them all the way, and it just doesn’t get them all the way to the Super Bowl.
“At this point in time, the Saints’ offense is playing a lot better than it has in the past. They’ve had trouble scoring touchdowns, but they’re driving the ball down the field. They get to the one-yard line, they’re just not punching it in.
“If they start punching those in, they’re going to be a tough team to stop.”
The Saints have been particularly rough on Ram quarterback Jim Everett. Swilling and Jackson have sacked him 11 times each. Everett has had some big games against New Orleans, but also some of his worst when his offensive line has not been able to handle the Saint onslaught. The Rams haven’t beaten the Saints since 1989.
Said Everett: “I’m not qualified to speak about the rest of their team, but I’ll tell you this: I think their defense is Super Bowl-quality. They’re about the most legit guys we’ve faced this year.
“Everywhere you look at them, you see guys who can really play the game.”
After giving up 11 sacks in one three-game span in the middle of the season, including four to New Orleans, the Ram offensive line has settled down and yielded only five in the past five games.
With last Sunday night’s 24-point rally to victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers still fresh in their minds, the Rams say they can carry the feeling over.
“The way we finished in Tampa Bay, we’re just anxious to go out and play again,” tight end Jim Price said.
“We think we’re kind of rolling right now. We just want to go out, put some points on the board, let it fly.”
Ram Notes
Today is yet another chance for the Rams to end their most embarrassing streak. Entering the game, they have lost 14 consecutive NFC West games, dating to Nov. 25, 1990, when they beat the 49ers. “I haven’t won a division game yet,” second-year cornerback Todd Lyght said. “I think everybody on this team wants to go ahead and knock that out because a lot of the young guys on this team haven’t won a divisional game. So we’re going to try to get that out of our system this week.” . . . Another streak: The Rams have lost their last five Anaheim Stadium games to the Saints. The last time they beat New Orleans at home was Nov. 23, 1986, 26-13. . . . If the Saints win today, and Philadelphia loses, New Orleans will clinch the No. 1 wild-card position and a home-field game in the first round.