Saints 24 Rams 3 The Saints coasted to a win over the Rams on the strength of two defensive touchdowns and an impressive debut by Kerry Collins. Kerry Collins looked sharp throwing the ball during the game's opening possession- to Sean Dawkins for 22 on 3rd & 9, to Keith Poole for 8 on 3rd & 5, to Dawkins for 13 on 2nd & 11. On 3rd & 8 from the St. Louis 10, he hit Cam Cleeland with a perfect TD pass. The Rams never recovered- on their third play from scrimmage, Tyronne Drakeford picked off an errant Banks throw and chalked up an easy 32 yd return for TD. Less than 8 minutes into the game, the Saints were up 14-0. The visitors penetrated deep into Saints territory during the ensuing possession, thanks mostly to a pair of catches by Lee and a personal foul committed by Jared Tomich. The D forced a FG attempt when Joe Johnson notched a sack on 3rd & 4 from the NO 5. The three-pointer was successful. A 26 yd catch & run by Aaron Craver put the Saints near midfield during the next drive. The team flirted with FG range for a while before Mark Royals came on to punt to the 12. The D held St. Louis without a 1st, and Andre Hastings returned the punt to the Ram 43, but the O couldn't make use of the field position- this time Royals' boot went to the 16. The Rams moved the sticks twice before punting the ball back to the Saints. Collins ran for 20, then hit Hastings for 15 (a roughing-the-passer call tacked on 15 more). A few runs set up Doug Brien for a 26 yarder, which he made. On the last play before the 2-minute warning, Tomich and Johnson converged on Banks and popped the ball loose from his grasp. Austin Robbins gathered it in while crossing the goal line. The PAT made it 24-3 Saints. The Rams made it as far as the NO 23, but a sack and a holding penalty forced their half-ending FG attempt to be tried from 53 yds; it was wide left. The second half was boredom city- the Rams couldn't move the ball, and the Saints didn't care to. In 14 possessions (7 per team), only twice did a drive net more than 15 yds. On both of those occasions, the ball went as far as the defending team's 37. The Saints ended the Rams' drive when pressure from Johnson permitted Alex Molden to grab an INT; the Saints' drive ended when Ditka eschewed a long FG attempt and elected to punt. The Rams didn't even bother to try and convert on 4th down. Game over. stats & yardage histograms (from my "le Stat" system, not official) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ note: this stuff is meant to be read using a fixed-width font, like Courier note: the capital letters in the stats are used in the histograms and the drive chart to identify the players ..runnin'......./.......throwin' & catchin'........ 5- 39 Kerry collins 11- 22 ray Zellars 1- 2 6- 21 Aaron craver 1- 26 7- 19 Lamar smith 2- (3) Sean dawkins 3- 50 keith Poole 3- 43 andre Hastings 1- 15 cameron Cleeland 2- 19-1 incomplete 13 intercepted 0 29-101 13-26-152-1-0 L L A AAL L <--runs KZZZZKAA L LZZZZZLZZKAK K ***************************************************************************** - 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 yards gained 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 <------ ***************************************************************************** L ZL PPC S S S P C H A <--passes ..runnin'....../.......throwin' & catchin'................. 2- 3 tony Banks 11-26 jerald Moore 1- 8 3-19 amp Lee 7- 99 2- 4 June henley 4- 35 1- 3 derrick Harris ricky Proehl 7- 49 eddie Kennison 1- 15 j.t. Thomas 1- 12 az-Zahir hakim 3- 28 incomplete 11 intercepted 2 19-55 24-37-246-0-2 B J J <--runs LHML MM MMBMMMM M M L ***************************************************************************** - 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 yards gained 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 5 0 <------ ***************************************************************************** J PLPZPJ LLZL J LL PZJMP L K P P T <--passes comments ^^^^^^^^ * Joe Johnson was all over the place * combined record of teams the Saints... have beaten: 13-37 / have lost to: 30-20 / have yet to play: 40-20 ******************************************************************************* Frank Serpas III serpas@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu