New Orleans Saints: Players that must thrive to beat Los Angeles Rams
By Jason Reed
1. Alex Anzalone
It is no secret that the Los Angeles Rams have a very talented running game and have one of the few players in the league that can actually make a case for being better than Alvin Kamara.
Although we entered the 2019 NFL season unsure of Todd Gurley‘s health, he appeared to be just fine in his limited workload in Carolina as he racked up 97 rushing yards on just 14 carries.
The outlook at defensive line is still unclear as we do not know if Sheldon Rankins will be back in action yet in Week 2, so we don’t want to make this about the defensive line. Plus, if you are going to limit Gurley, you are going to need good play at the backer level.
Alex Anzalone is going to be huge as the MIKE in this game in limiting Todd Gurley’s ground attack and keeping three-yard runs from turning into 10-yard runs. There are going to be plenty of instances where Gurley finds the seam or bounces to the outside and the backers are going to have to be the ones to make the tackle.
Plus, Anzalone will likely find himself manned up either on Gurley or on Cooper Kupp in the middle of the field. The Saints cannot make it easy on Jared Goff and Alex Anzalone is going to be responsible for making that happen.