Rams prepare to expose frailty-prone defense in Week 13

The Los Angeles Rams (5-6) are desperate for a win in Week 13 when they head out to face the New Orleans Saints (4-7) at Caesars Superdome. The Rams are coming off a loss to the Eagles where they struggled offensively and will need to bounce back against a flawed Saints defense.

In the overall defensive rankings, the Saints allow the second most yards on average of any defense in the NFL. They give up 390.8 yards per game and 23.6 points per contest. The only other team giving up more yards than the Saints is the Jacksonville Jaguars (2-9) at 413.7 yards per game.

In terms of pass and run defense, the Saints are still bottom of the barrel, but the Rams offense will look to take advantage of the passing game a little more. The Saints rank third-worst in the league, allowing 256.6 passing yards per game. That bodes extremely well for a strong Rams passing attack.

The Rams won’t see the Saints’ top secondary player as fourth-year cornerback Paulson Adebo was placed on injured reserve Tuesday with an upper leg injury. Without his presence, the Saints will rely heavily on 12th-year safety Tyrann Mathieu to help limit the Rams’ air raid offense.

Mathieu has continued his great success throughout his veteran career with three interceptions, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery and 43 total tackles. It’s the sixth consecutive year that Mathieu has earned three or more interceptions in a season. He will be priority number on through the air.

The Saints are a little better at stopping the run, but still bottom 10 across the league. They allow 134.2 yards per game on the ground and should be able to give up some plays to running back Kyren Williams and company.

Leading the Saints in tackles is 13th-year veteran linebacker Demario Davis with 79 total tackles, 13 more than the next defender. Davis has just one sack and four pass breakups this year and has always played the role of the defense’s eyes in the middle of the field.

In terms of pass rush, the Saints rank in the bottom half of the NFL with just 25 total sacks, nearly 20 fewer than the league-leading Denver Broncos with 44. Second-year defensive tackle Bryan Bresee leads the team with 5.5 sacks, already surpassing his rookie total from last the year of 4.5.

Along with Bresee, defensive end Carl Granderson and cornerback Alontae Taylor have combined for 8.5 sacks. Granderson has been effective rushing the edges with 4.5 sacks while Taylor is set to be a cornerback with four. The pair will look to create even more pressure this week.

With veterans all over the field, the Saints are pretty strong at forcing turnovers. They are actually tied with the Rams with 15 forced turnovers this season, but have given it away 13 times to the Rams’ 12 times. This should be a very even matchup in terms of turnover ratio.

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