Blitz-crazy St. Louis shocks New Orleans to record first victory
NEW ORLEANS -- Jim Haslett wasn't ready to return to the place where his first head coaching job began with accolades and literally ended in disaster after Hurricane Katrina.
It took about three quarters of, in Haslett's words, "freakin' awesome" football to make the St. Louis defensive coordinator feel a little better about being back in New Orleans.
His aggressive defense stuffed Drew Brees and the Saints' high-flying offense long enough to get the Rams their first win Sunday, 37-29.
"It really felt strange, being in the dome, period, after everything the dome went through and after everything the city went through. To be honest with you, I didn't think I'd ever come back here. I've kind of avoided the city, not the people, but the city," Haslett said, noting that his wife, Beth, couldn't bring herself to come to the Louisiana Superdome for the game. "I was hoping we wouldn't play the Saints so I wouldn't have to come back."
It was a surprising performance from the Rams (1-8), who dominated the Saints (4-5), a team that had climbed back into the playoff picture with a four-game winning streak after an 0-4 start.
Marc Bulger finished with 302 yards and short touchdown passes to Isaac Bruce and Drew Bennett. Running back Steven Jackson, recovering from a back injury, rushed for a short touchdown and even threw a 2-yard halfback pass to Randy McMichael for a score.
Torry Holt had 8 catches for 124 yards, torturing the New Orleans secondary with several clutch catches on third-and-long plays.
Of course, Bulger, Holt, Bruce and Jackson all have had big games before. It was probably a matter of time before they'd start clicking again.
The difference was the Rams' blitz-happy, play-making defense, which intercepted Brees twice, thwarted a scoring threat with a third-down sack, forced an intentional grounding penalty and piled on Brees for another drive-ending loss after the quarterback bobbled a high snap.
"To me, the guy that makes the whole thing go is the quarterback," Haslett said. "We figured we're not going to let the quarterback sit back there and pick us apart. We were going to take some chances, come after him and try to disrupt him."
Haslett guessed that he called blitzes on about 16 of the first 18 plays the Saints ran.
"Defensively, I think they had a plan for us. They executed that plan very well," Brees said. "They did a great job of getting pressure and their offense really helped the defense out by staying on the field."
Brees finished with 272 yards and 2 touchdowns, but most of it came while New Orleans ran a hurry-up offense in a belated comeback attempt from a 34-7 deficit that finally ended when the Saints failed to recover an onside kick with a half-minute remaining.