Buccaneers: Key takeaways from matchup vs. Saints

The Buccaneers vs. Saints game was quite interesting to say the least. Tampa Bay visited the New Orleans at home. Tampa lost the game 27-36 with the Saints getting a game-sealing pick six. The Buccaneers had a pretty bad game but some bright spots.

We beat ourselves at the end of the day though. We had 11 penalties for 100 yards. Two roughing the passer calls on the same drive. Now, the penalties don’t excuse the way we played at all, but we didn’t help ourselves either. Tom Brady was 28/40, 375 yards, four touchdowns, and two interceptions. Brady had a good game besides his last interception that was returned all the way for a touchdown. The first pick he threw, Tyler Johnson didn’t clear out the corner so when Brady threw it, the DB was right there.

We also barely ran the ball. We had a total of 13 carries for 69 yards which is an average of about 5.3 yards a carry, which is good, but not enough carries to make the defense want to be scared of us running the ball. The reason running the ball is so important is because it opens up the pass game and play action game. So, if we run the ball a lot, the safeties could move up, and that is when we go over the top for a big gain/play.

On defense, we get all this pressure and never finish the play. We had one whole sack the entire game, and it was by Ndamukong Suh. We need to figure out why we can’t finish sacks when we blitz every other play almost.

Now for some stats: On offense, Chris Godwin has a phenomenal game with eight catches, 140 yards and a touchdown. Cyril Grayson, who get elevated from practice squad ,had one catch for a 50 yard touchdown. Mike Evans had two receptions for 48 yards and touchdown, with the touchdown coming off of Marshon Lattimore.

Giovani Bernard had two carries for 30 yards and one reception for seven yards and a touchdown. The offensive line played amazing as well. On defense, Jordan Whitehead had 9 tackles, Devin White had ten total tackles, Ndamukong Suh had four tackles and a sack, and Antoine Winfield had four tackles and an interception, but that was called back for roughing the passer.

The Buccaneers need this bye week so we can get healthier and hopefully get some players back to 100%. We might even get Carlton Davis and Sean Murphy-Bunting back. Fire those canons!