CARSON, Calif. — Three weeks into training camp, Erik McCoy had gotten used to the way defensive coordinator Brandon Staley likes to dial up pressure. So when the New Orleans Saints center participated in Thursday’s joint practice against the Los Angeles Rams, and the looks the defense gave pre-snap differed significantly from the ones he had been regularly seeing, he said it took him a minute to adjust.
But he was hardly alone in that regard.
“I thought we started off a little slow,” McCoy said. “Let’s call a spade a spade.”
So much of the focus on the Saints’ training camp this year has centered on New Orleans’ quarterback competition. But against the Rams, it was the Saints’ offensive line that couldn’t be ignored. Facing one of the best fronts in football, the results weren’t always pretty. Across 83 reps, Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shough would have been sacked at least five times if contact were allowed, and the offensive line contributed to many of the six penalties that were called.
There’s no need to overreact to just one practice, but at the very least, the Rams provided great experience for New Orleans’ offensive line. At tackle, in particular, rookie Kelvin Banks and second-year Taliese Fuaga had their hands full with Byron Young and Jared Verse. But up and downs are to be expected as Banks adjusts to the NFL and Fuaga moves from left tackle to right tackle, his college position.
The near-constant pressure added a wrinkle to the Saints’ evaluation of their quarterbacks.
“It’s got to be process-focused,” Saints coach Kellen Moore said when asked how he evaluates the quarterbacks when the offensive line struggles. “You just have to make sure they are going through the right process. A couple of those plays — sack or no sack, certainly there may have been — you’ve just got to finish the play.”
That said, the Saints’ quarterbacks were game even with all the pressure.
Here were the stats from a mostly scripted session:
Rattler: 12-18 (123-184 overall)
Shough: 13-22, not including spike (109-176)
Jake Haener: 5-6 (78-115)
Rattler and Shough — both fighting for the No. 1 spot — settled in well and looked sharp when responding to mistakes. The two alternated first-team reps again, but it was Rattler who started first and was ready to let it rip.
Rattler began the morning by hitting his first seven consecutive passes. He found tight end Juwan Johnson — who had a really nice day with six catches — on back-to-back throws and then later hit Rashid Shaheed over Rams cornerback Emmanuel Forbes.
After they only shared the field for one regular-season game last year, Rattler and Shaheed have built impressive chemistry as camp has progressed. Rattler’s best throw Thursday was again on a bomb to the speedy wide receiver, who got behind two Los Angeles defenders and sprinted to the end zone for a touchdown.
Shough, though, made sure he wasn’t left behind. His top moment was arguably on a shallow crosser to Mason Tipton — whose speed appeared to take the Rams’ defense by surprise as he hit just the right angles to take off for a really long touchdown. Shough also hit Brandin Cooks near the sideline to gain a first down on what appeared to be second-and-20.
Both quarterbacks, however, struggled in the red zone.
While Shough stood calmly and hit Cedrick Wilson for a 10-yard touchdown on his first passing attempt of the series, it was downhill from there. He then had four straight incompletions and took a sack.
Rattler wasn’t much better. A double-blitz up the A-gap got to the quarterback immediately, and Rattler went 1-of-4 across his two series of red-zone reps.
Haener, it turned out, looked the sharpest of the Saints’ quarterbacks in the red zone, though his reps were again limited to only the third string. The third-year signal-caller hit Clyde Edwards-Helaire in the flat and then found tight end Treyton Welch for a touchdown.
Still, the Saints were pleased with how they closed practice — and how the last few series unfolded determined why. In addition to Rattler’s standout deep ball to Shaheed, Shough led the Saints to what would have likely been a game-winning field goal during the final set of team drills.
Down 23-21 with 1:20 left from their 35-yard line, Shough hit three straight passes to get into field goal range. Then, after a spike, Shough found Johnson on an out route to quickly get out of bounds for a 10-yard gain. After one more throwaway to burn another four seconds, the drill ended with Moore yelling, “Nice job!” to his celebrating offense.
Just as notable on that drive, the offensive line held up. They didn’t seem to allow pressure outside of the first play of the 10-play drive. Even on that play, which resulted in Shough accidentally hitting Banks’ helmet with a pass because of the oncoming rush, Shough and the offense didn’t let the mistake derail the drive.
“When you play in some unscouted situations, it’s great work,” Moore said. “You’ve got to respond. You’ve got to trust yourself. You’ve got to react. And so there’s plenty of opportunities to grow, first and foremost. But they did respond, they kept fighting and kept making some plays.
“It’ll be great film for our guys to watch.”