\n
<\/p>\n
Underwhelming would be a fitting word to describe the play of Saints quarterbacks\u00a0Tyler Shough and\u00a0Spencer Rattler during the team’s preseason opener against the Chargers\u00a0on Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rattler started the game, went 7 of 11 for 53 yards and was sacked three times. Shough, a 25-year-old rookie, was better but not necessarily great himself, going 15 of 22 for 165 yards in an outing that included a pick-six that was quickly followed up by a long touchdown pass. Shough was also sacked twice in the 27-13 loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Saints started the game with Rattler, a 2024 fifth-round pick who went 0-6 as New Orleans’ starter last season. He was unable to engineer a scoring drive during his five series of work, although he and the Saints were able to get to the Chargers’ 1-yard-line on their second drive before being turned over on downs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ranking rookie QB performances from Week 1 of the preseason: Shedeur Sanders makes statement, Jaxson Dart wows<\/p>\n
\n Tyler Sullivan <\/p>\n
Rattler also committed the game’s first fumble at the start of the second quarter after he was sacked by Chargers linebacker Caleb Murphy. The turnover set up a Chargers field goal. Rattler got one more series of work before giving way to Shough, the third quarterback selected in this year’s draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shough got off to a good start as he hit wideout Kevin Austin Jr. for a nine-yard gain on his first pass attempt. He went 5 of 8 on the drive while leading the Saints to their first score of the game, a 31-yard field goal by Blake Grupe, before the end of the first half.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But after a three-and-out on the Saints’ ensuing drive, Shough made a big mistake when he sailed a pass to the sideline that was picked off by Chargers cornerback Eric Rogers\u00a0and returned 43 yards for a score.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shough quickly rebounded from the turnover. On the next possession, Shough — aided by a stellar block by running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire — hit a wide open Mason Tipton downfield for a 54-yard touchdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Shough would go 5 of 6 on the Saints’ next two possessions, but was unable to lead New Orleans to a score on either drive. A sack short-circuited the first drive, while two short completions failed to pick up the necessary yards for a first down on the second drive. Shough was then replaced by Jake Haener, who went 5 of 8 for 41 yards and an interception on the Saints’ final two offensive possessions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Regarding Shough, there were some positives to take from Sunday’s game. He was mostly accurate, displayed the ability to complete some passes downfield and showed some resilience after his pick-six. Shough flashed some of the potential that led to the Saints to target him in the second round ahead of other quarterbacks like Jalen Milroe, Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rattler, who\u00a0said last week<\/span> he’s been the “best quarterback on the field,” didn’t play well. Shough played OK against backups who weren’t doing much from a schematic standpoint. With the regular season less than a month away, Shough may be the best option for a Saints quarterback situation that looks rather bleak entering Year 1 under coach Kellen Moore.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Underwhelming would be a fitting word to describe the play of Saints quarterbacks\u00a0Tyler Shough and\u00a0Spencer Rattler during the team’s preseason opener against the Chargers\u00a0on Sunday.\u00a0 Rattler started the game, went 7 of 11 for 53 yards and was sacked three times. Shough, a 25-year-old rookie, was better but not necessarily great himself, going 15 of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[4813,2883,8757,6656,8754,8756,8752,8753,8755,7122],"class_list":{"0":"post-15162","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-bleak","9":"tag-competition","10":"tag-orleans","11":"tag-outlook","12":"tag-outplays","13":"tag-rattler","14":"tag-saints","15":"tag-shough","16":"tag-spencer","17":"tag-tyler"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}