Tampa Bay Buccaneers crushed by New Orleans Saints
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers can’t really be compared to the defending Super Bowl Champions, the New Orleans Saints, but the treatment they were meted out on Sunday was just impolite.
The Saints toyed with Tampa Bay while racking up five scoring drives, four touchdowns on the Saint’s side against just one for the Buccaneers. Drive after drive the Buccaneers were foiled while the Saints continued to make plays and score points. There was
no contest.
Saints quarterback, Drew Brees, passed more yards than his Tampa Bay counterpart as it was expected but the Saints also had a strong run. Chris Ivory ran an unbelievable 158 yards in the game supported by Julius Jones’ 32 yards and Ladell Bets’ 20.
On the Tampa Bay side the combined total rush was 42 yards. Brees welcomed the help from the runners but he really didn’t need it. The quarterback flawlessly threw 263 yards in 21 attempts for 3 touchdowns. Brees made no mistakes in the game.
The Champions were coming off a lost game against the Arizona Cardinals and wanted a win badly. Concerns have been voiced that New Orleans faces the Champions curse. The team that won last year is not playing like champions this season. They have lost 2
of their six games so far and have been making uncharacteristic mistakes, which has cost them games and landed them in third place in the NFC South.
The dominant win over the Buccaneers puts them back in second place and would help boost the team’s confidence and specifically that of Saints Rookie running back Chris Ivory.
“He's a young back that's got a lot of talent, still learning his way around this league”, Brees said of the Ivory. “Obviously, he had a huge day”. Ivory’s 158 yards came of 15 attempts to average 10.5 yards per attempt. Ivory, Jones and Betts combined more
than made up for the absence of Reggie Bush and Pierre Thomas as the Saints ended the game with a season high in rushing yards.
The Buccaneers were just flustered. “We've got to figure out some kind of way to stop the run”, Tampa Bay’s Tim Crowder said after the game. “Everything starts with stopping the run”.
Tampa Bay had a surprisingly good run this year. Or at least they had a good run until they ran into the Pittsburgh Steelers and now the New Orleans Saints. Against those two teams the Buccaneers have scored 19 points and conceded 69.
Tampa Bay’s coach Raheem Morris tried to find the silver lining in the defeats against teams he described as ‘heavyweights’ of the NFL. “It humbles you”, Morris said. “It gets you in the right state of mind, gets your guys back into the laboratory ... and
gets them to focus a little more”.
It’s unlikely though that any degree of focus could have turned the tables on New Orleans on Sunday. The Saints were just simply unstoppable. Their offense was highly successful and accumulated a season high of 475 yards. Apart from an interception, a missed
field goal and a punt, the Saints scored on everyone one of their offensive drives in the game.
The first time they were forced to take the punt wasn’t until the fourth quarter. Tampa Bay on the other hand was forced to punt in all three of its starting drives. Twice their marginally successful drives had to be ended with field goal attempts, which
were unsuccessful on both occasions. Connor Barth attempted the failed 40 and 47 yards field goals.
The desperate Buccaneers opted for the two point conversion following their only touchdown of the game but they were denied that too. “You know New Orleans is going to come in and put up some points”, Tampa Bay's quarterback Josh Freeman said disappointedly.
“But as an offense, you realize you have to match them”.
In the Buccaneers defence, they were up against one of the best defences in the NFL and the current Champions. Next week the Buccaneers would face the Saint Louis Rams.
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