The Good, Bad, and the Ugly from Saints vs Jaguars

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The New Orleans Saints did more good than bad in its 24-20 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in its first preseason game on Saturday.

See four important quotes from head coach Kellen Moore after the game.

That’s something to celebrate as you got to see what the backups and rookies could do in a real-game situation. Also, it’s the preseason so these games don’t matter when it comes to team performance.

However, there was still some bad. Not too bad, but it was bad enough to make the list.

Here is the good, bad, and ugly from Saturday’s game.

The Good: First-half defensive performance from second teamers

The second-team defense of the Saints held the Jaguars to 82 total yards in the first half. It made the biggest impact in the passing game. New Orleans had allowed only six completions on 15 pass attempts (40%), recorded three sacks and forced two interceptions, one from linebacker Jaylan Ford and one from defensive back Jayden Price.

Ford finished with seven tackles and a pass deflection, while Price broke up two passes as well.

Read our list of Biggest Winners and Biggest Losers from Saints-Jags.

Cornerback Martin Emerson Jr. has continued his strong week, breaking up a team-high three passes and could have had an interception himself.

The standout player was undrafted rookie Michael Heldman. The 6-3, 268-pound defensive end from Central Michigan had two sacks and two quarterback hits.

The Bad: Second-Half Collapse

It’s not that bad in the scheme of things considering it's a preseason game and most of the players that played in the second half were the third-stringers, but it’s still bad enough to be on the list.

The Jaguars opened the second half with a 10-play, 79-yard scoring drive that was finished off by a 1-yard touchdown pass from Jackson Bradley to Carter Long, and running back J’Mari Taylor would convert the two-point conversion to make it a 20-14 ballgame with 8:53 left in the third quarter.

Taylor had four carries for 32 yards on that drive, with two of them being first-down runs.

The Saints’ offense would stall after Wilson got sacked for 14 yards on first down in Jaguars territory. Despite going three-and-out, Wilson did enough to at least get them back into field-goal range. However, Charlie Smyth would miss from 52 yards out.

The Jags took a 24-20 lead with 4:55 left in the game with Taylor’s go-ahead two-yard score. His touchdown was set up by a 43-yard pass from Joey Aguilar to Trebor Pena at New Orleans’ two-yard line.

That touchdown would mark 18 unanswered points for Jacksonville.

The Ugly: Spencer Rattler

Spencer Rattler was the frontrunner for the Saints’ backup role, but he had a horrid performance,

While the third-year quarterback completed eight of his 11 passes, he only threw for 42 yards, the lowest of the three quarterbacks that played on Saturday. He also lost a fumble that was recovered by Jacksonville deep into Saints territory.

Meanwhile, Zach Wilson completed 11 of his 16 passes for 145 yards and a touchdown.

Moore was mum about whether or not Wilson will get more reps with the second-team offense and that he was proud of the quarterback’s room performance as a whole.

“We’ll continue to get these guys all these different reps," Saints coach Kellen Moore said. “You know, I think the world of our quarterback room, at the end of the day, I think it's as talented a group as ever been around. You know, I thought Spencer did some good things. He's continued a really good training camp. I think what Zach did, you know, today, but also through training camp, I mean, he's just been getting better. And so I feel really good about this on the whole entire group.”

Winners and Losers

Who were the biggest winners for the Saints in Saturday's first preseason game? Who were the biggest losers? Check out our thoughts here.

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