Jared Goff, the new look offense and the Los Angeles Rams had an unfortunate ending to their Week 11 contest against the Miami Dolphins. Unable to produce a passing touchdown, personnel changes were made to the offensive unit in hopes of more production from Goff.
At home, the rookie quarterback faced off against a noteworthy Miami Dolphins defense, but now battle against the New Orleans Saints. Coming into the matchup, the Saints own the 27th ranked defense in the NFL, allowing 382.8 yards per game.
In particular, the Saints passing defense ranks amongst the league worst. They allow 280.7 passing yards per game, which is ranked 27th in the NFL. Although the unit hasn’t produced on the field, they still remain a sound group, which is learning from a Gregg William’s disciple.
Dennis Allen, the defensive coordinator of the Saints, worked under Williams while he was tenured with the Saints during the 2009 and 2010 season.
Boras noted the comparison between Allen’s unit and that of his mentor, via Myles Simmons of TheRams.com:
“They’re a very talented defense,” Boras said. “Their defensive coordinator Dennis Allen is a Gregg Williams disciples, so there’s a lot of similarities there. We know they’re aggressive.”
In his second career start, Goff does face off against a statistically worse defense, which also should have some familiar schemes.
After getting continual reps during practice with the first and second units, Sunday’s contest should have a familiar feeling for the Rams.
In his first career start, he completed only 17 of 31 passes, for 134 passing yards. He posted a quarterback rating of 58.7, as he failed to get any points in the end zone.
Goff gave insight into the Saints’ defense and reiterated the similarities with the Rams’ defensive unit:
“They’re good. They mix it up,” Goff said. “They run a lot of similar stuff to what our defense runs I think. There’s a lot of carryover — we’ve seen a lot of it, as well as they’ve seen a lot of our stuff through going against themselves. But it’s been good. They’re athletic, they’re long and they’re good at all three levels. It’s going to be a good challenge.”
The contest on Sunday is slated for a 1:25 P.M. start time, in an expected high-scoring game. While Todd Gurley battles a sickness, he is expected to play and will be needed to ease Goff’s workload entering his second start.
