By Ross Jackson
After finally getting a strong look from their newly constructed offense, the New Orleans Saints quickly ran out of momentum in their second preseason matchup.
The team’s second preseason game raised more concerns were than confidence.
Outside of the 16-play, 95-yard touchdown drive, the Saints offense struggled. After that scoring drive, the team’s young quarterbacks never really found a rhythm..
Rookie passer Spencer Rattler was taken down with a sack-fumble that turned into a field goal for the 49ers. He finished the game completing just 50 percent of his passes (4/8). He was sacked twice and posted a 57.8 passer rating. His offensive line and pass-catchers didn’t help much.
Jake Haener’s showing started off equally unimpressive. At one point he threw a ball that was so far behind his targeted wideout that it went directly into the hands of a 49ers cornerback. Luckily, the defender was not able to corral the interception.
After surrendering their one-point lead just before the half, the defense found ways to hold throughout the second half allowing only one more field goal and putting the team in position for some late-drive heroics by Haener and the offense.
Unfortunately, those heroics came up short. Haener and wide receiver A.T. Perry could not link up for a go ball down the left sideline on a fourth and seven. Perry may have needed to try to fight back through the defender and work his way back to the football in the endzone to try to draw a pass interference. But playing for a pass interference rather than a score is surely the less ideal mentality in this situation.
The concerns for the Saints still mounted despite the promise of a late surge. Several players left with injury or were at least impacted by injury for a short amount of time. The defense continued to struggle making tackles in the backfield against opposing quarterbacks. The offensive line depth did very little to generate confidence. Add in several drops by the team’s wide receivers, and it is easy to forget that 16-play drive that sparked so much early excitement.
New Orleans did end up deploying a little bit of its offensive scheme during its big scoring drive, but a lot of questions will still mount around the team’s ability to get the most out of that scheme and improve its win-loss record in 2024. However, preseason success is rarely indicative of regular season success. If the Saints can get into the regular season healthy and with the full complement of their new scheme, there could be a light at the end of the tunnel which is currently populated with underwhelming preseason performances.
One thing is for sure coming out of this preseason loss.
The backup quarterback battle is still very tightly contested. When one of the young passers plays well, the other does as well. And today when one struggled the other followed suit. With one more week to separate themselves for the “QB2” job, the pressure is on for both Haener and Rattler.
