The New Orleans Saints are coming into their Week 6 contest against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on a three-game losing streak. It’s a losing streak that can very easily swing to four games if they aren’t careful. However, despite a lot of gloom coming in over the organization, there is something to be hopeful about. That would be rookie quarterback Spencer Rattler starting under center for the injured Derek Carr.
Injuries Galore For The Saints
Looking at this matchup for the Saints, they’re at an immediate disadvantage due to Carr being out. Fans might not have liked what Carr brought to the team the last few weeks, but he’s the better signal caller than Rattler is at the moment. Of course, this doesn’t account for potential. Carr isn’t the only one who will be out with an injury, which seems to be the norm for New Orleans. Other notable injury news shows Taysom Hill, Cesar Ruiz, Will Harris, and Pete Werner getting ruled out for this upcoming contest.
Harris in particular has been placed on injured reserve, opening the door for Jordan Howden to potentially start at safety opposite Tyrann Mathieu. In positive news, Kendree Miller is anticipated to get activated off injured reserve and play, Willie Gay practiced in full the last two days, Lucas Patrick is listed as questionable despite not logging any reps at practice, and Alvin Kamara should be good to go even with a hand injury.
Buccaneers Are Vulnerable, But Extremely Talented
With all of that critical information out of the way, let’s dive deeper into the preview. Rattler will make or break this game for New Orleans. The reason that everybody is so excited about him starting is because there is hope that he can eventually replace Carr in this offense and become the long-term franchise quarterback. This is the first step in what is hoped to be a long journey, though there will be growing pains. It’s unreasonable to expect him to go out and dominate in his first regular-season start, but he has a good chance against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers secondary.
Tampa watched Kirk Cousins throw for over 500 yards against them a little over a week ago on Thursday Night football. To make matters worse, they will be without Christian Izien and Earnest Brown while also listing both safeties Jordan Whitehead and Antoine Winfield as questionable. Rattler, with this offense consisting of Chris Olave, Alvin Kamara, and Rashid Shaheed, could take advantage of the secondary in a similar way as Cousins and the Atlanta Falcons just did.
Defense Is Going To Be Crucial
I think that’s the biggest story for the game, which leaves the other side of the ball as an underrated talking point. The Saints’ defense will be missing key pieces again, and so will the Buccaneers offense. Tampa will be without center Graham Barton, Rachaad White, Trey Palmer, and possibly Jalen McMillan and Luke Goedeke. They’ll lean heavily on their certified stars and that’s something that New Orleans will need to prepare for.
They have to keep a lid on Bucky Irving, who will be making his first official NFL start in the backfield. Once you contain the ground game, you force the Buccaneers to air it out, and that’s surprisingly a matchup that the Saints can win. Marshon Lattimore alone has been unbelievable. It’s not talked about enough, but through five games, Lattimore has been targeted just nine times. Some fans have even said that he’s probably getting bored out there because he’s shutting down everything. If he does the same to Mike Evans, the rest of this talented defense can focus on Chris Godwin. At the very least, the Saints should be able to keep this game close with their defense.
Predictions For The Outcome
At the end of the day though, I don’t anticipate a Saints win. I am a huge fan of how this defense lines up against the Buccaneers offense, but I can’t fully imagine a win with Rattler yet. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that he’s going to be a starter in this league at some point. It’s just not easy for rookie quarterbacks to win in this league, especially against a divisional rival that has savvy veterans on their defense such as Lavonte David. The way the Saints win this game is by completely shutting down what the Buccaneers want to do offensively, similar to how the Denver Broncos did it a few weeks ago. Because this doesn’t feel like a game where the Saints score over 24 points. Hopefully, I’m wrong about that though.