Rattler completed 10 of 21 passes for 135 yards and touchdown, wasn’t sacked and displayed a level of poise that wasn’t present during his first stint behind center.
“I think especially for a rookie, there’s some overthinking involved, or a guy that hasn’t had a lot of starts,” Saints interim head coach Darren Rizzi said. “Sometimes when you come off the bench, ‘Hey, you’ve got to go.’ You don’t get that chance to maybe overthink all the different things and the scenarios and all that.
“When you’re the starter, sometimes you may go into a game and you’re thinking of first- and second-down plan, third-down plan, the two-minute plan, the red-zone plan – all of a sudden it kind of piles up on you. I think for young, inexperienced quarterbacks that can kind of pile up a little bit.
“I think our coaching staff has done a great job with that this week preparing him. Hopefully that translates to Monday night.”
Rattler, who was sacked 14 times in the previous three starts, seems to believe it will.
“You can’t overthink it,” he said. “The pocket rarely is super clean, so being able to throw from any base, any pocket, I think gives you an advantage.
“I think you see the great quarterbacks in this league make throws from anywhere in the pocket – if they’ve got a good base, if something’s off script, off schedule, you’ve got to make that play and give your guy a chance.
“I think that’s one thing I did this last game – I wanted to give my receivers, give my tight ends, more chances. If they’re one-on-one I trust these guys to go make that play. Don’t be too safe, let’s go make some plays, have some explosives and that gets the momentum and juice going for the offense.”
