NFL

"Sometimes, a game goes according to form and the best team wins.

The defending Super Bowl champion plays the way you'd expect the defending Super Bowl champion to play, especially at home.

Sometimes, a young team plays as if it hasn't solved all of the problems that led to last season's 1-15 record.

Sometimes, a rookie quarterback plays like a rookie quarterback and makes rookie-quarterback mistakes.

And a veteran All-Pro quarterback plays like the veteran All-Pro quarterback and picks apart the obvious weaknesses in your defense.

Sometimes, there will be some rough days, shaky moments, slip-ups, hard knocks, brain cramps and harrowing flashbacks for a developing team that's trying to make the longshot jump from the NFL's worst record to winning the NFC West and making the playoffs in less than 12 months.

Sometimes, things go down the way they're supposed to go down. And you just have to take your beatdown and go home, learn from it, get ticked off by it and get ready to make it right for the next game: an important encounter with the intrastate-rival Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday at the Edward Jones Dome.

This isn't exactly enthralling headline material. But what do you want me to say? Fire everyone? Bench everyone? Sell the team? The Rams lost to the Saints 31-13, and nothing about this was unexpected.

Repeat: Nothing.

The Saints got on an early roll and hassled Rams rookie quarterback Sam Bradford with their blitzes. The Rams didn't protect Bradford and the Saints did a great job of protecting Drew Brees. The game will usually turn on you when that's the case.

The Rams were futile on third downs (converting one of 11) and the Saints owned third downs (converting 11 of 16) and that's usually a formula for a one-sided game. The Rams couldn't keep pace and screwed up too many times to make a serious comeback.

I don't think that's a reason to call for the dismissal of the coaching staff, or to pound the laptop keys and insist that the Rams should have drafted Ndamukong Suh instead of Bradford. I don't think seeing the Rams go into an unforgiving road setting with a battered secondary and getting smked by the Saints is a reason to declare that the season is over.

And if you're thinking any of those things, well, shaddup already.

The Rams (6-7) completed a three-game road stretch Sunday and went 2-1 in their travels. I'd imagine that most of us would've gladly accepted a 2-1 record at the outset of this expedition.

And we already know that the NFC West is a big pile of steaming mediocrity, and that the Rams have flaws. We know that they're not ready to duke it out with the big boys, having been knocked down by Atlanta (11-2) and New Orleans (10-3) in recent weeks. That's all been established."

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"Ken Whisenhunt said he plans to choose the quarterback that gives his team the best chance to win the rest of the season.

And that quarterback is ...

"Right now, that's John Skelton," the Arizona Cardinals coach said at his Monday news conference. "Until we feel otherwise, we'll proceed along those lines."

Skelton completed 15 of 37 passes for 146 yards and was not intercepted or sacked in Sunday's 43-13 rout of the Denver Broncos, which snapped a seven-game losing skid.

He wasn't great, but he was good enough to help revive a sleepy Arizona offense that totaled 357 yards, its most in four weeks.

"He did a lot of things rookie quarterbacks do," Whisenhunt said, "as far as mistakes, play calls in the huddle that were incorrect and had to be changed. All those things are what you expect."

Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/sports/card...start-nfl.html

"When he met with the team Friday morning, coach Steve Spagnuolo said that somewhere in the course of Sunday's game against New Orleans, the Rams would have to make four or five "game-changing" plays to topple the reigning Super Bowl champions.

Turns out all the game-changers were made by the Saints in a 31-13 spanking that reminded the Rams once again that they still have a way to go before they can hang with the big boys in the NFL.

The biggest game-changer Sunday came with a minute to go in the first half and the Rams trailing 14-6. On second-and-4 from the New Orleans 15, wide receiver Brandon Gibson ran a hitch-and-go pattern toward the end zone. He beat cornerback Tracy Porter with the hitch move and broke open. But before the ball got to Gibson, Saints safety Malcolm Jenkins stepped in front to intercept the pass at the 4.

Jenkins didn't stop running until he reached the end zone for a 96-yard touchdown. Instead of a touchdown and 14-13 deficit, the Rams suddenly found themselves down 21-6 with 47 seconds left in the half. In an 18-point loss, it was a 14-point swing in the wrong direction.

The Saints never looked back, scoring on their second and third possessions of the second half and coasting to their 10th victory of the season, against three losses. The Rams fell to 6-7 but remain tied for first in the NFC West with Seattle and still have the tie-breaker edge over the Seahawks.

"To be honest, I thought I had" a touchdown, Bradford said. "I just wasn't able to put enough on the ball to get it there in time. The ball kind of floated on me. (Jenkins) made a good play. A nice pick."

Jenkins, who has replaced Darren Sharper in the starting lineup, had only one interception in two NFL seasons until Sunday. His 96-yard return was the third longest on an interception in Saints history.

"I got a good break on it," Jenkins said. "He didn't put much velocity on it and I was able to get it."

If there was anyone in the Superdome who felt worse than Bradford about the play, it was left tackle Rodger Saffold. It was the man Saffold was blocking, Saints defensive end Will Smith, who got the pressure on Bradford and made it impossible for him to step into the throw.

"I kind of put that on myself," Saffold said. "Because maybe if Sam was able to step into it or something he might have been able to get it over the head (of Jenkins), and then it would've just been an easy over-the-shoulder catch."

Or Bradford could've zipped the ball in quickly enough that Jenkins would've been unable to get there.

"I got too aggressive" in pass-blocking Smith, Saffold said. "He's a very, very good defensive end — he's so evasive. When you're dealing with that type of defensive end, you've got to slow your feet down a little bit because if you move too quick, he's able to react very quick.""

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