St. Louis Rams Put Up a Fight, But Fall Short Against the Perfect Saints

ST. LOUIS| It may have been the best the St. Louis Rams have looked this season, but it wasn't enough.

Reggie Bush ran for 83 yards, caught two balls for 15 yards, and scored twice to lead the New Orleans Saints to a 28-23 road win against the scrappy Rams.

"It's a tough one," said Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo. "The only thing that matters in this league is the result, and I'm having a hard time with the result.

"We were knocking on the door with a possible victory over an 8-0 football team. There are no moral victories, but we'll build on that. Our guys battled. We said we'd play fast, and play hard, and that's what our guys did."

The Rams went into halftime tied 14-14 with the undefeated Saints, and had the ball trailing 28-23 with 2:21 remaining in the game.

After driving inside the Saints 40, Marc Bulger threw an ill-advised pass to Steven Jackson in the middle of the field with 19 seconds left and no timeouts.

The Rams quickly got to the line, but Bulger's pass to the end zone on the last play of the game fell incomplete.

Spagnuolo defended his quarterback's check down to Jackson.

"That position that the 32 guys in this league play is not easy," Spagnuolo said. "It's easy for us on the sidelines, and easy standing back, but it is not an easy position. It's hard to be perfect all the time."

Bulger played well at times, but was far from perfect.

He completed 26 of 40 pass attempts for 298 yards with two scores and an interception. The two TD tosses to Donnie Avery were perfectly placed balls, but he badly missed receivers on other throws.

The Rams did get the game's first turnover, when Oshiomogho Atogwe picked off a deflected pass intended for Jeremy Shockey. The Saints tight end got hit by David Vobora as the ball arrived, causing it to pop up in the air for Atogwe to make the diving grab at the Saints 47.

St. Louis was unable to capitalize as Bulger was intercepted by Usama Young in the end zone after Jackson ran them into the red zone.

Bulger under-threw Keenan Burton, who was then carted off the field with a patella injury to his right knee. The severity of the injury is unknown, but it appeared to be serious. If he's lost for the season, he'd be the third receiver to go on injured reserve.

"You can't control injuries, and I don't get frustrated about that," Spagnuolo said. "Keenan Burton, I love. He's stepped up to become a leader, he's a workhorse in practice. I love that guy, so I'm disappointed for the person."

The injury opened things up for rookie receiver Brandon Gibson, acquired from Philadelphia in a trade for Will Witherspoon. Gibson caught seven passes for a game-high 93 yards.

"Brandon getting his first opportunity, he took advantage of it," Spagnuolo said. "In this league, somebody gets hurt, and somebody else steps up. Brandon did that (Sunday)."

The Rams held the Saints scoreless in the first quarter, but on the second play of the second quarter, Bush leaped over the pile for a 3-yard touchdown.

On the Rams ensuing possession, Jackson runs of 14, 7, and 8 yards, and a play-action pass to a wide open Randy McMichael for 19 yards put them deep inside New Orleans territory again. This time, they didn't squander the opportunity.

Following a Bulger fumble, which Jackson recovered, Bulger floated a perfect pass to front left corner of the end zone to Avery for a 29-yard touchdown to tie the game at 7-7.

The Saints didn't take long to respond, gaining 41 yards from Robert Meachem on an end-around run on the first play of the ensuing possession.

That led to a 15-yard pass to Bush, who beat Craig Dahl to the pylon for his second score of the game.

Presumably in four-down territory at the Saints 28, the Rams handed off to Jackson on a third-and-9. They didn't need to worry about a fourth-down play, because Jackson busted off 13 to give the Rams and first-and-10 at the New Orleans 15 just before the two-minute warning.

Three plays later, Jackson followed fullback Mike Karney and guard Jacob Bell into the end zone for his second touchdown of the season.

Jackson had 100 rushing yards on 16 carries, plus another 21 receiving yards, to go along with the game-tying score before halftime. He finished with 131 yards on 26 attempts, and caught nine passes for 45 yards.

In the first half, Jackson passed Lawrence McCutcheon for third place on the Rams' career rushing list.

The Saints didn't waste any time regaining the lead as Courtney Roby returned the opening kickoff of the second half 97 yards to paydirt.

"My blockers did a great job," Roby said. "When they cover up guys like that, I just find a seam and try to hit it."

A James Butler interception of Brees led to a 32-yard Josh Brown field goal to make it 21-17 with 7:08 remaining in third.

Late in the third, Bush ripped off a 55-yard run, but Marques Colston later fumbled the ball through the end zone for a touchback.

The Rams' defense did a good job of limiting big plays through the air. Brees was held to 223 yards with two scores and two interceptions. Colston caught just two balls for 17 yards. Shockey finished with three receptions for 42 yards. Devery Henderson had four catches for 72 yards, and Robert Meachem accounted for 68 yards on two touches.

"It's tough to take them all away," Spagnuolo said of the Saints' weapons. "Jeremy Shockey, Henderson, I mean they're a good football team."

The Saints piled up 203 rushing yards on 29 attempts for a 7 yard-per-carry average, led by Bush's 83.

"(Bush) had some big plays for us, some big runs and explosive plays." said New Orleans coach Sean Payton. "I thought he played one of his better games (Sunday)."

The Saints went up 28-17 on a perfect 27-yard pass from Brees to Meachem in the back of the end zone with 12:15 remaining in the game.

St. Louis used a mixture of short, quick passes to Gibson, Jackson, and Daniel Fells to move the ball against a Saints secondary without both starting cornerbacks and free safety Darren Sharper.

A 23-yard completion to Fells on a post seam got the ball to the New Orleans 19 with 2:50 remaining. On the next play, Bulger hit Avery on a purposely underthrown ball to the front right corner of the end zone for their second TD hookup of the day.

Bulger's two-point conversion pass to Fells was incomplete, and the Rams trailed 28-23 with 2:44 remaining.

Instead of kicking deep with two timeouts and the two-minute warning in their pocket, the Rams tried an onside kick, which was recovered by Colston.

"More than anything, it was a respect for their offense," Spagnuolo said. "We thought we'd like to take a shot, and get possession back. As it turned out, they got the ball and our defense did a good job to stop them.

"There were some things we could have done better, but it was nice at the end to be driving to win. When you can do that, that means you played a pretty good football game."

This article can also be found at The Alton Telegraph .