{"id":426865,"date":"2024-12-02T18:29:58","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T18:29:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=426865"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Rams-shake-off-slow-start-slide-past-Saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Rams-shake-off-slow-start-slide-past-Saints\/","title":{"rendered":"Rams shake off slow start, slide past Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Matthew Stafford threw two touchdown passes, Kyren Williams ran for a score and the visiting Los Angeles Rams held off the New Orleans Saints 21-14 on Sunday. Stafford passed for 183 yards and Williams rushed for 104 yards on 15 carries for the Rams (6-6), who reached .500 for the third time this season. Alvin Kamara rushed for 112 yards and Derek Carr passed for 184 and a touchdown for the Saints (4-8), who lost for the first time in three games under interim head coach Darren Rizzi. The Rams, whose NFL-record streak of 129 consecutive games without being shut out in the first half ended, broke through on their first possession after the break. Williams capped a 70-yard drive with a 4-yard touchdown run, giving Los Angeles a 7-6 lead that held up through the end of the third quarter. Stafford threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Demarcus Robinson on the first play of the fourth quarter to increase the lead to 14-6. New Orleans responded on the ensuing drive, with Carr hitting Marquez Valdes-Scantling for a 28-yard score and connecting with Dante Pettis on the two-point conversion to pull the Saints even at 14 with 11:53 remaining. Back came the Rams, who moved 56 yards on eight plays. Stafford found Puka Nacua for the go-ahead 7-yard score with 8:54 to play. Carr drove New Orleans to the LA 9 but threw incomplete on fourth-and-3 with 1:09 left. The first possession of the game ended with Blake Grupe kicking a 54-yard field goal to give New Orleans a 3-0 lead that held up through the end of the opening quarter. Grupe was wide left on a 36-yard attempt on the first snap of the second quarter. The Rams, who ran just three plays for 4 yards in the first quarter, held the ball for 12 plays and drove to the Saints&#8217; 25 on their first possession of the second. But they passed on a field-goal attempt, and Stafford misfired on fourth-and-4. Grupe bounced back to make another 54-yard field goal with two seconds remaining in the first half, giving New Orleans a 6-0 lead. &#8211;Field Level Media<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/images\/imgupload\/c90ff9f0ec5f7e91671f5405b735a860.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><\/p>\n<p>Dec 1, 2024; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) throws against New Orleans Saints defensive end Chase Young (99) during the first half at Caesars Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>-Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images<br \/><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Matthew Stafford threw two touchdown passes, Kyren Williams ran for a score and the visiting&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-426865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426865\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}