The Good: Zach Wilson
The New Orleans Saints 3rd string QB provided a spark to the offense late in the second half when he came in to relieve starter Spencer Rattler. The Saints scored 13 points in the second quarter to take a 20-6 lead, the last of which came on an 84 yard drive in 1:02 led by Wilson and two completions of 28+ yards. Wilson finished with 145 yards on 8/11 passing and 1 touchdown on 4 total drives between the second and third quarters. If Wilson keeps this up he may wind up being named the Saints backup QB. The next two preseason games will show us more in what is becoming an intriguing battle for the backup QB position.
The Bad: Second half defense
The Saints played great defense in the first half, holding the Jaguars to just 6 points and intercepting two passes. In the second half however, they allowed 18 points and didn’t have any takeaways. The Saints gave up scoring drives of 10 plays for 79 yards, 17 plays for 41 yards, and 5 plays of 57 yards. The third string defense looked worse than the second string despite also playing against Jacksonville’s third string offense. This is to be expected of course, as there is a reason they are the third team, but depth issues hopefully won’t come up on the Saints defense this year as this was not the best debut.
The Ugly: Sustaining drives
The Saints went three and out four times on Saturday, and punted a total of five times. The were 4/13 on third down, and their only touchdown drives were of 9 yards and 28 yards following a long kick return and a turnover. The Saints only put together three drives of 50+ yards, mainly due to the fact that they were not able to establish the run. The only ran 16 times for 56 yards as opposed to the Jags running 36 times for 118 yards. This can be expected from constantly changing the personnel as you do in the preseason, but the offense should appear more effective going forward.