Saints reeling as the Buccaneers find ways to win: New Orleans Saints vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers preview
Every week, everyone gets ready for the Saints’ offence to finally explode and display the magic they showed last year. Well, newsflash, everyone always gives the defending Super Bowl champions their best shot; that’s why repeating is so hard. Don’t expect
anything less than the best of the Buccaneers this Sunday either. The surprising Buccaneers are looking for respect, as they are 3-1 and trying to convince people they’re for real.
The Saints’ offence looked completely out of sync in Arizona last week, as they lost the game despite giving up no offensive touchdowns. The Cardinals scored two defensive touchdowns off Saints’ turnovers, as Drew Brees and company looked dumbfounded by the
Cardinals’ strong defensive outing. Tampa Bay will look to stick it to their division rivals with the home crowd behind them and the Saints still struggling to find their way.
New Orleans rushed the ball effectively last year to compliment their heavy passing attack, but that has not materialized this year. The loss of Reggie Bush to a broken leg has taken out a strong dimension of the Saints’ offence. Even before the injury though,
the Saints’ offence never quite looked dominant, struggling to victories in the first three weeks of the season. The Saints should consider themselves lucky to be 3-2, as some solid play from their defence, along with facing struggling offences the first three
weeks, got them off to a 3-0 start. Now with back-to-back losses to the Falcons and Cardinals, the Saints need an answer and fast. The Falcons are at 4-1 and the Buccaneers can push the Saints down to .500 with a win this week.
Tampa Bay will ask Josh Freeman to continue managing games well and avoiding turnovers. That led to their three victories while turnovers led to their only loss against Pittsburgh. Statistically, the Buccaneers aren’t impressive; they’re ranked toward the middle
of the league in all major categories. That’s because Freeman has improved on his ball security and Mike Williams has developed as a number one option for Freeman. Williams has 19 receptions this season for 238 yards and three touchdowns. Kellen Winslow has
also helped as a reliable tight end.
The only category in which they’re poor is fun defence, 30th in the league with 143 rushing yards allowed per game. The Saints have not been able to run the ball well either, but they’ll need to exploit that weakness and not rely so heavily on Brees. The passing
game is ranked fifth in the league at 271 yards per game, but the Saints have only scored 19.8 points per game.
The Buccaneers haven’t done anything fancy, but they’re winning. They’re letting their opponents make mistakes and they’ve been opportunistic. The Saints have made their share of mistakes recently and if they don’t fix them fast, they’ll fall to third in the
NFC South. If this becomes a shootout of a game, then the Saints’ talent should take over. If it’s an ugly game and a tight defensive struggle, look for the Buccaneers to shock everyone again and knock off the defending champions.
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