Stafford Shines as Rams Cruise to 34-10 Win Over Saints, Spoil Shough’s First Start | Game Recap

Stafford Shines as Rams Cruise to 34-10 Win Over Saints, Spoil Shough’s First Start | Game Recap

Back in studio with the fellas and you can only play who is in front of you. Rams fans thankful that what was in front of them on this day closer to the than the Saints as of right now. A new quarterback. We will get there. But a thought here on the winning side first. Dame. I’m looking at Stafford. He gets his numbers. I’m looking at Kairen. He does as well. Both of your top receivers. This is, you know, we talked about Green Bay earlier in the day playing down to to their opponent. This is a we are who we are no matter who was across from us performance. Exactly. The the Rams went out and did exactly what they needed to do. You hit on the stats. The quarterback played well, receivers played well, your defense played well. I mean, they held the Saints only running 40 plays offensively. That is an atrocious, horrendous day on offense. Then you look at the Saints. I mean, they have a clear quarterback problem. Spencer Rattler was out there. He didn’t play very well. Now, some of the things that happened while he was out there, it might not have been his fault, but they made the switch to Tyler Shuck. He was their first round pick. You got to give him a go. He has not played well. So when you look at this matchup, yes, the Rams did exactly what they wanted to do, what they needed to do, but it was against a very, very bad New Orleans Saints football team. When I look at this Rams team, someone that a lot of folks, I don’t think nationally are talking about, Chris Schula, the defensive coordinator of the Rams, and the job that he has been able to do, their last three games, they’ve allowed two touchdowns. It was a fourth quarter touchdown to Travis Hunter when they were playing in London. They come off the buy. They allowed just one touchdown today uh allowing the Saints just 10 points. Really impressive stuff from the Rams defense. When we talk about LA for years, right, ever since Shawn McVey got there, we have been talking about the offense and it’s Matthew Stafford and it’s Puka Naku who almost had 100 receiving yards despite uh dealing with a chest injury. The fact is this defense right now is pulling as great a weight as the offense is. Uh there’s no chance that the Ravens scoring three points can beat them. no chance that the Jaguars scoring seven can beat them and then the Saints just had no chance. It was an impressive performance on both sides of the ball here. Maybe the most impressive note in it. Matthew Stafford over his last five games now 16 touchdowns, no interceptions. Talk to me about what sort of flow state that is for a signal caller. This is you almost become numb to seeing Matthew Stafford do stuff like this. 280 yards, four touchdowns today, spreading it out. Puka, Devonte Adams, Higgby. I mean, if you’re Shawn McVey and you’ve got Matthew Stafford at the helm, you’ve got these weapons. You’ve got Kiren Williams in the back field. Look at this. You know how easy it is for a play caller when everything is working the way you want it to. Your quarterback’s taking care of the ball. He’s completing passes at a high clip. No stress for this Rams offense again today. I’ll say it cuz nobody else is saying it. I think the Saints team is the worst team in the NFL. Oh, there are two teams vying for that title right now. It feels too obvious teams. As for Matthew Stafford, he sees his old pal Clinton Kershaw right off into the sunset. Not to suggest the same is out in front of us here, but uh game recognized game always there. We have to recognize what is lacking in the game of the New Orleans Saints currently and the quarterback situation. It’s not good and the only way for it to get better might be outside of the building. How much Tyler Shuck are we going to see? Do we need to see? Is this a team that dips their foot back in the pool this off season? Where does where’s the answer come from? I mean, they they may very well look for someone else in the offseason. The fact is, this was Tyler Stuck’s first start of his career. The fact is, talent-wise, this is a bottom quartile team in the NFL. The fact is that whomever was going to be quarterbacking realistically for the New Orleans Saints in this game against the Rams, no one at this desk would have taken the Saints today. That that’s that’s the truth of it. And we have been saying for really the past 10 years or so that the New Orleans Saints at some point they’re going to stop kicking the salary cap can down the road. They’re going to take their medicine. We’ve been saying it. Oh, it has to happen, right? And it has not happened. Maybe this is going to be the off season. Maybe right before the trade deadline, they trade away a Rasheed Shahed or a Chris Ave. Maybe they send Cam Jordan on his last legs to a Super Bowl contending team so he has a shot at it. A Deario Davis. We could see some of those things potentially taking place, but are they going to hit the reset button and fully rebuild? Because they have not committed to a full rebuild. They only got tricked into this because Derek Carr decided to retire. You know, Kell Moore didn’t take this job thinking he wasn’t going to have Derek Carr. We got to be honest about all that. This is not a Saints team today that they thought they were going to be a few months ago. This is their lot in life. When do they hit reset? And if they do a full reset in 2026, I’ll actually disagree. As much as someone may not believe in Tyler Shuck, he very well may be the guy if this is a full rebuild. And not to be unfair there, you want to offer him the requisite runway to develop. An 81.2 rating here, 15 to 24 for 176, a touchdown and an interception. It’s going to take time, but time plus situation is what’s going to equal success. What do you see when you look at Tyler Shuck early on in his career? There’s going to be growing pains. I think the jump from the college game to the NFL, I don’t care if you played at JMU, Alabama, wherever you played, there’s going to be a learning curve, right? So, I think the biggest thing for now, the the season is lost for the Saints, right? They’re there’s there’s no way they can they can do anything. The biggest thing for them now is they need to find out moving forward what their answer is going to be at the quarterback position. And here’s where I have a problem. I was on the Saints team 5 months ago. They decided to let me go. Derek Carr retired. Now, you’re left with Spencer Rattler, who’s a secondyear guy in the room. Tyler Shuck, who’s a rookie, Jay Kainer on the practice squad, who’s a third string. You have third year, sorry. You have no veteran leadership. Who’s supporting who in that room? There’s no voice. There’s no, hey, here’s what you do in this situation. Here’s what you do in that situation. So, that’s where I find the problem at in this quarterback room right now. There doesn’t feel like there’s any veteran leadership. Just a bunch of guys who are rookies trying to figure this out on their own. I agree. I mean, no meat left on the bone. I I just I have to take this back to Jon Jones. I’m not sure that Tyler Shuck is the guy. From what I watched at Louisville, seeing him now, sometimes you can look at a guy and you can say he’s got it or he’s not got it. Now, there’s plenty of time. I mean, when you spend first round draft capital, you’re handcuffed to giving him an opportunity and letting him develop, but I don’t know if fixing the team around him, getting him more options at receiver, get improving the running game, I’m not sure that that’s going to help Tyler Shuck just because I I’ve seen very few glimpses of something that makes me say this is the type of guy that a franchise can hang their hat on. Sure. And they picked him, you know, 40th overall, so they’re going to give him an opportunity. And if everyone in New Orleans is being honest with themselves, they thought that he was going to give Spencer Rattler more of a competition in training camp. They gave Tower every opportunity, especially after Derek Carr had the surprise retirement. Ben, you know this quite well. They gave Tower every opportunity to win that week one job. He ultimately kind of fell backward into starting this week because Spencer Rattler didn’t take care of his business fully. So, there is certainly some truth to that. But, I’m just saying within that building, they did spend a top 40 pick on him. They’re going to want to see more than just his first start before determining, okay, this cannot be the guy. When it’s going this bad and the record is what it is, you’re looking for something or someone to tether your belief to. And I think maybe we’re having a hard time tethering that to Tyler Shuck. It is early career start number one, a loss to the Los Angeles Rams. Most consecutive wins by 14 or more points here in the year 2025. Three consecutive for Matthew Stafford and this offense. The defense complimenting it as well, but Stafford going great. 16 and0 touchdown to interception, his last five. When you need your sports news all the time, we’ve got breaking news to bring to you. CBS Sports HQ gives you a snapshot of all the sports that matter to you. Big news coming out of the NFL. A lot of movement in the rankings this week with highlights. What a finish at the final round of play and in-depth analysis. Can they three Tony Romo joins the conversation? What can you say about this game? When you need your sports in a snap, we’re bringing you that breaking news right here on HQ. Find it on CBS Sports HQ. Streaming free anywhere you are.

Jonathan Jones, Damien Harris and Ben DiNucci join CBS Sports HQ to recap Saints-Rams in Week 9.

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