TPP Postgame Report
By Josh Hill
FINAL: Saints 27, Buccaneers 16
NEW ORLEANS — The Buccaneers needed a win to retake first place in the NFC South but you wouldn’t have guessed that given their play. The Bucs played sloppy, unorganized football all game long and only decided to show up in the final eleven minutes of the game.
Josh Freeman, Kellen Winslow and LeGarrette Blount were yelling, pointing and penalizing themselves out of chances to score Sunday in New Orleans. You would have never guessed that last week was a bye week. Is it possible for jet lag to last more than a week?
The defense wasn’t much better and that’s usually their saving grace. Even though Gerald McCoy started, he didn’t last long; he left with an arm injury and didn’t come back. That put the Bucs down to two healthy tackles on defense and they were wads of cookie dough against the Saints three headed running monster of Darren Sproles, Pierre Thomas and Chris Ivory.
The Saints went over 100 yards collectively in the run game before halftime. Tampa couldn’t stop them even when it wasn’t third down which as the down Tampa got burned on the worst. The worst exposure of Tampa’s terrible third down defense was at the end of the game when Drew Brees didn’t throw, didn’t hand off but ran for 16 yards through a wide open defense to clinch the win.
Other mistakes for this young and unaccomplished team included dead ball fouls that killed drive after drive. LeGarrette Blount spoiled a great run he had by punching a Saint in the facemask after the play, Sean Jones punched a Saint after an Extra Point attempt, and Josh Freeman even got a delay of game penalty that moved the Bucs back on fourth and inches to fourth and five.
Tampa was able to convert on Freeman’s penalty but everything else was too much of a burden to overcome. Their sloppy play overall was their undoing.
Tampa now has a tough next few games against the first place Texans and the best team in football the Green Bay Packers. They lost the most important game of their three game stretch against first place teams but all is not lost. If the Falcons beat the Saints next week
Tampa is right back in it. But with the way they played today it’s going to be very hard to take this team seriously especially when they have no idea who they are. It’s not a lost season yet; Tampa’s just 4-4 but the margin for error is now non-existent.
Hopefully the Buccaneers can learn from this game but I’ve said that when they played the 49ers and played horrible, played the Bears and were horrible and even against the Lions. Now they’ve played terrible for a fourth game this year and if they’re going to turn it around, they better do it quickly.
Time is running out.