When the Saints met the Rams in the regular season, New Orleans receiver Michael Thomas had 211 receiving yards, helping his team put up 45 points in a win. The Rams need to stop that from happening again.
But it won’t be easy. Saints coach Sean Payton has a knack for using his play design to get Thomas in one-on-one coverage. As noted by Matt Bowen of ESPN on NFL Matchup, in last week’s game against the Eagles, the Saints’ play design used Ted Ginn as a deep threat and Drew Brees looking first to a shallow cross, to give Thomas a favorable matchup in the middle of the field.
“Ted Ginn, he can fly down the field, so if you’re a safety, you have to clear out, you have to gain depth to create space in the middle of the field,” Bowen said. “Look at Drew Brees, how he manipulates the coverage here. Where do his eyes go? Underneath to the shallow cross, look what happens. Underneath defender, he vacates his zone. When you vacate the zone in the middle of the field, that’s what Drew Brees wants. Now Michael Thomas can run the deep-in cut, high percentage throw.”
Thomas caught an incredible 85 percent of the passes thrown his way during the regular season, and he kept it going last week against the Eagles: Brees was 12-for-16 for 171 yards when throwing to Thomas, compared to just 16-for-22 for 130 yards when throwing to all his other receivers. Thomas is the receiver the Rams will need to stop, but the Saints’ play design doesn’t make that easy.