Blogs

Soundbites from the Locker Room

QB Drew Brees on the upcoming schedule:

“We have two divisional games coming up. That’s the good news. With Tampa Bay at home and going on the road to Atlanta before our bye week. Two huge divisional games where we need to put our best foot forward and play our best football.”

S Roman Harper on HC Sean Payton coaching from the press box:

“At the end of the day, we didn’t perform to our ability. We were outplayed yesterday. It is a player-driven league. Sean is there to control the ship and make sure the ship stays in the middle of the road. He does a great job of that. He has a great sense and pulse of our team. He knows that him not being on the sideline doesn’t control whether we win or lose ball games. He does a great job with play calling and he sees things from the top. He still passes messages down. At the end of the day as players, we just have to play better and respond to adversity better.”

G Carl Nicks on matching the opponent’s intensity:

“If you want to be great in this league, you have to match (your opponent’s) effort. The Rams came out intense and fired up. We weren’t on their level. If you want to be an elite team and go back to the Super Bowl like we did before then we are going to have to do things like that and really step it up.”

Quickie Quotes

“Obviously it’s a disappointing loss and hats off to Coach (Steve) Spagnuolo and those guys. I just told the team this in the locker room – everyone in there, starting with me, has to be better,” – Head Coach Sean Payton. 

“They were getting good pressure with their four-man front. There are obviously things we have to fix. We will fix them. We can all get better,” – QB Drew Brees

“I thought we had a good week of practice. I won’t take anything away from Rams. They took advantage of turnovers  and big plays,”  - S Malcolm Jenkins

Rams Upset Saints, 31-21

RB Steven Jackson’s 159 yards and two touchdowns led the Rams to a 31-21 upset victory over the Saints Sunday afternoon at Edward Jones Dome. 

Check back for more.

Some Scary Saints Fans in St. Louis!

Payton and Spagnuolo Chat Pregame

New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton and St. Louis Rams head coach Steve Spagnuolo talk before the start of an NFL football game between the New Orleans Saints and the St. Louis Rams Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Inactives for Saints-Rams

Saints inactives: RB Ingram, DB Patrick, LB Herring, OT Strief, TE Thomas, WR Arrington, DE McBride 

Rams inactives: Rams inactives: QB Bradford, RT Smith, DT Scott, WR Alexander, RB Norwood, CB King, LB Poppinga.

Saints-Rams Final Injury Report

Saints

Did Not Participate (Injury) – Game Status  

RB Mark Ingram (Heel) – OUT

Limited Participation (Injury) – Game Status

LB Jonathan Vilma (Knee) – Probable

DT Sedrick Ellis (Ankle) – Probable

TE David Thomas (Concussion) – Questionable

LT Zach Strief (Knee) – Questionable

Full Participation (Injury) – Game Status

LB Jonathan Casillias (Knee) – Probable

DE Turk McBride (Shoulder) – Probable

TE John Gilmore (Neck) – Probable

TE Jimmy Graham (Ankle) – Probable

LB Will Herring (Hamstring) – Probable

Rams

Did Not Participate (Injury) – Game Status

WR Danario Alexander (Hamstring) – Doubtful

QB Sam Bradford (Ankle) – OUT

LB Brady Poppinga (Calf) – Questionable

DT Darell Scott (Concussion) – OUT

T Jason Smith (Neck/Concussion) – OUT

Limited Participation – Game Status

CB Justin King (Groin) – Questionable

Full Participation – Game Status 

CB C.J. Ah You (Wrist) – Probable

Saints-Rams Thursday Injury Report

Saints

Did Not Participate (Injury)         

RB Mark Ingram (Heel)

LB Jonathan Vilma (Knee)

Limited Participation (Injury)

LB Jonathan Casillias (Knee)

DT Sedrick Ellis (Ankle)

TE David Thomas (Concussion)

LT Zach Strief (Knee)

Full Participation (Injury)

DE Turk McBride (Shoulder)

TE John Gilmore (Neck)

TE Jimmy Graham (Ankle)

LB Will Herring (Hamstring)

Rams

Did Not Participate (Injury)

WR Danario Alexander (Hamstring)

QB Sam Bradford (Ankle)

CB Justin King (Groin)

LB Brady Poppinga (Calf)

DT Darell Scott (Concussion)

T Jason Smith (Neck/Concussion)

Full Participation

RB Jerrious Norwood (Illness)

T Rodger Saffold (Illness)

CB C.J. Ah You (Wrist)

Saints-Rams Wednesday Injury Report

Saints

Did Not Participate (Injury)

LB Jonathan Casillias (Knee)

RB Mark Ingram (Heel)

LB Jonathan Vilma (Knee)

DT Sedrick Ellis (Ankle)

Limited Participation (Injury)

TE John Gilmore  (Neck)

TE David Thomas (Concussion)

TE Jimmy Graham (Ankle)

LB Will Herring (Hamstring)

LT Zach Strief (Knee)

Full Participation (Injury)

DE Turk McBride (Shoulder)

Rams

Did Not Participate (Injury)

WR Danario Alexander  (Hamstring)

QB Sam Bradford (Ankle)

CB Justin King (Groin)

RB Jerrious Norwood (Illness)

LB Brady Poppinga (Calf)

T Rodger Saffold (Illness)

DT Darell Scott (Concussion)

T Jason Smith (Neck/Concussion)

Limited Participation (Injury)  

CB C.J. Ah You (Wrist)

Around the League with Vilma

LB Jonathan Vilma spoke with former Saints FB Heath Evans on NFL Network’s “Around the League” Wednesday afternoon. Below are some highlights. you can watch the full interview here.  

On the professional challenge to drive the team past a win into a game against a winless team in the St. Louis Rams:

“Handling success; that’s the first thing, that’s the most important thing. It’s easy to look hard and make the corrections after you lose a game; we lose to Tampa in Tampa Bay and we come back and of course we’re focused, we’re ready to go to face Indianapolis. We have a very good performance; I thought all three phases complimented each other very well and we executed the gameplan very well. So now it’s a matter of coming back, getting ready for another team that’s winless right now; want to make sure that we keep it that way, but we really have to focus on ourselves, understand how to handle the success and get right.”

On why Drew Brees is the best quarterback in the NFL:

“I think Drew Brees is the best quarterback, one because he’s on my team of course. Two, because he has the intangibles; I haven’t been around [Tom] Brady, I haven’t been in the locker room with [Aaron] Rodgers or Peyton Manning, but I’ve been in the locker room now going on my fourth year with Drew Brees. It’s like a steady machine: he operates at such a high level. I’ll still tell you that the first guy – the only guy – to beat me into the facility and he stays later than me. This guy right here is ultra-competitive. As I said, the intangibles as far as being a team guy; he’s a leader, a superstar and still a team guy. Ultra-competitive, loves to take bets; we go after it in any competition we can, training camp, we have a redzone competition on Fridays that we get after it. This guy is the real deal. He makes plays in critical situations and with him we know we always have a chance to win.”

On the distraction of head coach Sean Payton’s injury:

“To answer your first part, it wasn’t much of a distraction when we saw it happen. I know defensively, we don’t really interact with Sean too much during the game; really deal with Gregg Williams and Joe Vitt. So for us, it was really just a side-step, a bump in the road; we had to deal with it and keep moving forward. I think offensively, as you could see it was hard for him to actually gauge what was going on in the game; he was trying to sit on the sideline in Tampa Bay and it just wasn’t working out. He eventually had to go to the hospital actually and get worked on. Going into the Indianapolis week, we were better prepared for it, we had already been through all of the distractions of the surgery, what happened, he came out well, so on and so forth. We had our gameplan together, we had Pete Carmichael, our offensive coordinator, calling the plays and it was smooth-sailing. He was up in the box, I know he could see everything that was going on up there and down on the ground level we were getting it in and we were grinding.”