By Ross Jackson
In what was one of the year’s best NFL performances, Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley went for 302 total yards and a pair of touchdown runs of over 70 yards against the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday Night Football.
The success that Philadelphia found on the ground against the Rams should be keenly in focus for the New Orleans Saints. Sure, the Saints don’t have Barkley. But they do have running back Alvin Kamara and do-it-all weapon Taysom Hill. The latter of which had a huge game of his own last week against the Cleveland Browns, piling on 188 combined rushing and receiving yards and a 75-yard touchdown rush of his own.
Meanwhile, just behind Barkley and Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry in the league’s all-purpose yards rankings sits Kamara. The back has had a bit of a revival in offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak’s offensive scheme. Shockingly, Kamara is on track to top 1,000 rushing yards in a season for the first time in his career. The Rams should allow him to keep that pace.
Los Angeles was thrashed in the run game at home by the Eagles, and they’ve been worse against the run on the road. While they have surrendered 138.3 rushing yards per game at home, the Rams have given up 151.4 per game on the road. That’s a positive matchup for New Orleans, Kamara and Hill.
Kubiak’s offense is built on the run game, and that should allow him to be as creative as he was able to be against the Browns last week.
Creativity will be a key, but Kubiac’s bread and butter matches up nicely with Los Angeles. The Saints’ wide zone scheme sets up to exploit the edges of the Rams’ defense.
Per Next Gen Stats, the Rams run defense allows the third most rushing yards per game outside the tackles, 88.0. Opponents average a robust 5.3 yards per carry on those outside runs.
There is no doubt that New Orleans should have every opportunity available to take advantage of the Rams’ porous run defense.
