NEW ORLEANS -- It was a tale of two halves for New Orleans Saints rookie quarterback Spencer Rattler in his NFL debut.
Rattler made his first start Sunday in a 51-27 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, replacing Derek Carr, who injured an oblique Monday against the Kansas City Chiefs. Rattler had a promising first half, scoring his first touchdown on a 10-yard pass to fellow rookie Bub Means in the first quarter to help give the Saints a 27-24 halftime lead.
"I was definitely happy with how Bub was playing," Rattler said of Means, who caught his first NFL passes against Tampa Bay. "It was kind of quiet throughout the year so far, throughout these first four or five games, and we've been grinding in practice, and we've been talking about when your time comes, make those plays, and I was happy for him."
There weren't many positives for the Saints in the second half. The Buccaneers (4-2) were able to confuse Rattler, picking him off twice in fourth quarter and sacking him five times (four in the second half). While he finished 22-of-40 for 243 yards, he completed only 11 of 23 passes for 103 yards in the second half.
That, combined with a historically bad performance from the Saints' defense, led to a shutout in the final two quarters.
"I thought the first half was really good for all of us. I think we came out, we were sloppy as a group throughout the whole second half. Couldn't really get anything going," Rattler said. "Shot ourselves in the foot a few times, made a few mistakes, starting with myself. Got to play better in that second half, but we fought, we battled, and we'll learn and get better from it."
Rattler said the Buccaneers played more man-to-man coverage in the second half and had a good game plan. He said he was most disappointed with his two interceptions and took the blame for most of the sacks behind an injury-depleted offensive line.
"I caused a few of those sacks, you know what I mean? O-line, I thought, fought their butts off all day, played really well. I thought we did some good stuff to help them up front, but just continuing to work that pocket, get the ball out and got to give credit to that defense, they played well in that second half," Rattler said.
Rattler said the loss ultimately came down to execution, as he felt the offense put the defense in a "tough spot." The Saints gave up 593 net yards of offense, their most since 2004, and allowed 51 points, the most since a 52-27 loss to the New York Giants in 2012.
Saints coach Dennis Allen said he didn't think the team did enough to help Rattler, citing protection issues, the inability to run the ball and bad tackling. The defense had three first-half interceptions, but Allen called the tackling "atrocious."
"I thought that was the biggest thing in the game. We didn't tackle in the game. And look, make no mistake about it, when it comes to defense, that's on me," Allen said.
Those numbers put the Saints in rare company with the 2012 defense, which gave up an NFL-record 7,042 yards. Then-Saints coach Sean Payton, who was suspended that season due to Bountygate, fired defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo after just one season.
Asked whether the tackling can be fixed before the Saints face Payton and the Denver Broncos on "Thursday Night Football," Allen said, "It's something we better fix." He also said the Saints plan to stick with Rattler as the starting quarterback.
"I'm not going to hang my head. I'm proud of what I did, what we did as a group, battling-wise," Rattler said. "We've just got to clean up, that's all it is. ... You can't hang your head after a tough loss like that. We've all got to be better. It starts with myself."
The Saints, who have lost four straight games, also played without Chris Olave (concussion) and Tyrann Mathieu (forearm).
"It was tough. But he'll tell you himself, next man up mentality. It's unfortunate to see your top guy go down really early in the game," Rattler said of Olave. "I hope it's a speedy recovery. I hope he's back fully healthy. It's tough because we wanted to really get him involved this game."