Coming into Sunday’s game against the Arizona Cardinals, New Orleans Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler expected to see a heavy dose of blitzes in his first start of the season.

Instead, Arizona barely sent any pressure at all.

According to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats , the Cardinals blitzed on only 18.4 % of Rattler’s dropbacks, the eighth lowest figure in the NFL in Week 1 and 6.4 % lower than Arizona’s blitz rate in 2024.

Rather than sending extra defenders at the Saints’ offensive line, the Cardinals chose to spend much of the day in shell coverage on the back end, keeping two or three defenders deep to prevent vertical throws to the Saints’ speedy receiver corps.

Rattler didn’t attempt his first throw of 20 or more air yards until late in the third quarter, when he found Rashid

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