The Saints host the Bucs for a big NFC South matchup in Week 6, and New Orleans has to find a way to end their three-game losing streak. It’ll prove to be challenging with key injuries and rookie Spencer Rattler making his first start, but they can overcome and deliver in front of the Superdome crowd. Here’s how.
What the Saints Need to Do to Get a Win
KEEP RATTLER RELATIVELY CLEAN
Spencer Rattler getting the start will dominate all the storylines this weekend, but again this is more about New Orleans needing to win a game. One way to ensure that is to help protect him, especially since he should get the start against the Broncos. He expects to get hit and that’ll help him get over any jitters in his first real outing. The Saints will take Lucas Patrick’s chest injury all the way up until game-time, and if he does play it’ll be interesting to see if he goes to center or left guard. Connor McGovern has been working with Rattler all week, so that seems like he’ll be there on Sunday.
GROUND AND POUND
Against the Chiefs, New Orleans had just 46 yards rushing. That won’t cut it. Now, in the Bucs last meeting, Atlanta ran it just 18 times and had a little succes, but it was more about Kirk Cousins throwing the ball. The Saints need to get the run game going early on to help Rattler settle in. Alvin Kamara will play despite his new hand injury to pair along with the ribs, but they need others to step up with Taysom Hill (fractured ribs) still sidelined. It certainly takes a lot of pressure off their rookie if they can get things going on the ground.
FIND THE DEFENSE
New Orleans’ defensive effort against Kansas City was disappointing. They had 13 missed tackles in the game and were giving up a lot over the middle of the field in addition to Kareem Hunt and Juju Smith-Schuster having a day against them. Yes, the red zone defense has been a saving grace for the Saints, but at some point they need to return to their form from early this season.
With Baker Mayfield, it’s all about getting him off his game. That’s something the Saints defense was able to do well in their last meeting in Tampa, shutting him down in the first three quarters, getting pressure on him and also batting down a lot of his passes. The four turnovers also helped. The pass rush must get home and the issues that plagued them on Monday night have to get cleaned up.
GET BACK IN SYNC
When these two have played in the Superdome in the past two years, the Bucs have had their number and have won in convincing fashion. It’s time for that to change. New Orleans has to find their rhythm and tempo again, and that’s something that has proven to be problematic over the past few losses. The first two games of the season saw the Saints click in all three phases, and you can point out various issues in the last three matchups that have led to their downfall. Being outplayed and out coached on Monday night was particularly alarming, and hopefully we can see marked improvement in this one. This is a game where you need to pull out all the stops to get back into the win column.
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