Currently on a 3-game losing streak, the New Orleans Saints are struggling overall as a team. The offensive performance against the Buccaneers was embarrassing, and what made it even worse was that Tampa Bay didn’t play well either.
QB Spencer Rattler
When talking about struggles, Spencer Rattler has to be mentioned. The second-year QB was coming off a bad performance against the Chicago Bears, and he needed to play better this game to keep his starting job, but that didn’t happen.
The Buccaneers have a pretty good defense, but this was a game Rattler could have taken advantage of due to Tampa Bay’s injuries. Instead, he looked uncomfortable for many of his snaps and regressed to his play seen in week 1 against the Arizona Cardinals. HC Kellen Moore had had enough and put in rookie Tyler Shough at QB.
G Trevor Penning
This past offseason, the Saints did not pick up former first-round pick Trevor Penning’s 5th year option. This decision wasn’t a surprise, but New Orleans still had a plan to start the offensive lineman at LG. The move made sense with Penning struggling at tackle and having great strength. When he has been healthy this season, Penning has had decent performances, but he had his worst game against the Bucs.
On Sunday, Penning had the difficult task of blocking Buccaneers star DT Vita Vea, and he got exposed. Multiple times, the offensive lineman was flagged for holding, and Vea pushed back Penning all day.
WR Rashid Shaheed
Even though the offense’s passing game struggled, there were moments when it felt like consistency was finally emerging, only for it to stall immediately.
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Early on in the game, Rattler threw an accurate ball in stride to Shaheed, and the wide receiver had some nice run after the catch. The issue was that Shaheed fumbled the ball. Later, with Shough now at QB, Shaheed caught another pass, but got the ball hit out while diving. It was initially ruled a fumble, but reversed as an incomplete pass.
Another glaring issue was Shaheed’s blocking, which allowed the Bucs defense to tackle Saints pass catchers behind the line of scrimmage or for little to no gain.
