Saints ride with rookie QB vs. Bucs playing for storm-ravaged Tampa Bay

Impressed as New Orleans Saints offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak sounded while describing rookie quarterback Spencer Rattler‘s field presence, he also made sure to point out that swagger alone won’t cut it in the NFL.

“I don’t want to overplay the swag thing,” Kubiak said when asked to expand on his comments about Rattler’s outward confidence. “It’s a nice thing to have, but at the end of the day, are you producing?

“You can have my wet-blanket personality,” Kubiak continued in his usual, low-volume monotone. “These guys got to produce, no matter what their personality is.”

Production on offense has been hard to come by lately for the Saints (2-3), who’ll try to snap a three-game skid on Sunday when they host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-2).

The Saints have averaged 16.3 points per game during their past three contests after averaging 45.5 points in a pair of lopsided victories to open the season.

Now they’ve turned to Rattler — a fifth-round draft choice out of South Carolina — as they try to beat the Bucs, who are coming off an overtime loss at Atlanta in which they lost the lead at the end of regulation.

“We want to get this taste out of our mouth,” Tampa Bay receiver Mike Evans said. “Obviously, last week we felt like we had that game in hand.”

Tampa Bay had a few extra days of rest after playing a Thursday night game in Week 5. The Saints are on a short week because they played at Kansas City on Monday night, when QB Derek Carr suffered an oblique injury that will keep him out this week and possibly longer.

The Buccaneers have had complications of their own because of Hurricane Milton, which made landfall as a Category 3 storm about 70 miles south of Tampa. It caused widespread damage, even shredding the fabric roof of Tropicana Field, the Tampa Bay Rays’ baseball stadium.

Rather than traveling from Tampa to New Orleans the day before Sunday’s game as they normally would, the Bucs arrived on Tuesday to escape the storm and held practices at Tulane University the rest of the week. The team also arranged for players’ families to make the trip.

With loved ones largely out of harm’s way, it was somewhat easier for players to focus on football. But they remained concerned about their fans and their community.

“We’re not even playing for just football now. We’re playing for something a little bit bigger,” Evans said. “I just want everybody to be safe at the end of the day. We have a job to do, and we’re going to do that.”

Rattler will be the third rookie QB the Bucs defense has faced already this season.

Tampa Bay beat No. 2 overall draft pick Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders in Week 1, then lost to Bo Nix and the Denver Broncos in Week 3.

Saints coach Dennis Allen said he expects Bucs coach Todd Bowles to test Rattler with “a lot of exotic blitzes and pressures.”

“It’s going to be difficult,” Allen said. “Todd’s always done a really good job with the defense there. … We’ve just got to prepare him for the looks that he might see and then we’ve got to count on his instincts to make some plays.”

The Bucs have won the past three NFC South titles, a run that began on the heels of the Saints winning four consecutive division crowns.

Last week’s 36-30 overtime loss at Atlanta cost Tampa Bay sole possession of first place. New Orleans trails the Bucs and Falcons by one game.

Bowles was asked about the difficulty of balancing the importance of winning early-season division matchups while also having to adjust the practice schedule due to Hurricane Milton.

“You don’t balance it. There is urgency every week, whether it’s an NFC South opponent or anybody else,” Bowles said. “Nobody is in their comfort zone right now, but we understand (the situation). … We have a mature team for the most part with our veterans that are helping the young guys.”

With usual starting center Erik McCoy and his backup, Shane Lemieux, both on injured reserve, the Saints last week brought in eight-year NFL veteran Connor McGovern.

Before the 6-foot-4, 306-pound McGovern got the call from New Orleans, he figured he was about a month away from retiring. He’d been working out on his own, but planned to stop after Nov. 1 and start losing weight while going to work on his family’s potato farm in North Dakota.

“I was on my couch for that first set of games (in September) and was like, ‘Maybe that is how this going to end,'” McGovern said. “But I’m glad it didn’t.”

Now it’ll be partly up to McGovern to help shepherd Rattler through his first NFL action.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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