Will Superdome be Silence of the Rams?
NEW ORLEANS – One might consider Saints coach Sean Payton a bit of sound expert.
He has been coaching in the Superdome at least eights times a regular season since 2006, plus playoff games. His seventh home playoff game will be Sunday at 3 p.m., ET on FOX in the dome when his No. 1 seeded Saints (14-3) “host” the No. 2 seeded Los Angeles Rams (14-3) in the NFC title game for the right to go to Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta on Feb. 3. Payton is 6-0 in Superdome playoff games.
The Rams know the dome. They entered it at 8-0 on Nov. 4 and left 8-1 after a 45-35 loss in which it trailed 35-14 in the second quarter.
People have been saying that sound in the dome on Sunday during the Saints’ come-from-14-0-behind, 20-14 win over Philadelphia may have broken the Superdome’s sound barrier. A meter in the dome reached 130 during the game.
“This place was as loud as I’ve ever heard it,” Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore said, but he is only in his second year here.
Running back Mark Ingram has been a Saint since 2011.
“Mark turned to me and said it was the loudest he ever heard it,” Saints running back Alvin Kamara said.
“It was loud. I saw the meter get to 128, 130,” Ingram said. “I have never seen it that high. They brought it, and we are going to need it all of the way through the playoffs. We appreciate it Who Dat Nation! It was huge.”
Payton does not like to compare scores, teams or games, but he admitted it was one of the loudest domes he has heard as the noise clearly messed with the Eagles’ body clock, so to speak, during the game.
“Any time you get a delay of game and then a timeout there, there’s an attrition to that noise,” Payton pointed out. “I’d like to think that was the case. Look, I saw 12 men in a huddle before an important down. It’s all of the communication that strains you - not just on one play, but through the course of the game.”
And after those two touchdowns in the first quarter, the Eagles were silenced.
“I think that any time you are in an environment like this, communication is a point of emphasis,” Philadelphia center Jason Kelce said.