The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were victorious this week winning 17-16 over the New Orleans Saints. It’s the first time since 2007 in which the Bucs have swept the Saints in the season series. The win on Monday night brings Tampa Bay’s record to 6-6 on the season. The win also helps solidify their first-place spot in the NFC South.
Bucs’ Stifling Run Defense Makes Third Down Stops When Needed
Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram were held at bay for the majority of the game. Kamara finished with only 26 yards, while Ingram finished with 27. Also, both running backs had below four yard averages. On top of all this, the Bucs’ defense did not give up the big run at all. Both running backs’ largest runs were a seven-yarder from Kamara and a five-yarder from Ingram. This shut down their run game and forced Saints’ offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael to use the passing attack.
One big performance came from veteran linebacker Lavonte David. David had 12 tackles and was huge in plugging any holes up the middle that Ingram and Kamara could exploit. He also got back to Saints’ quarterback Andy Dalton for a sack in the first quarter.
Buccaneers’ defensive end William Gholston also had a great game with six total tackles. He made lots of disruptive, contain plays that kept New Orleans’ backs from breaking to the outside.
The Saints were also held to 5-14 (35%) on third down conversions. A good amount of these situations came deep into Bucs territory when the Saints were normally driving. Three of their four scoring drives were field goals from Will Lutz within the red-zone. Keeping these drives from being touchdowns set up Tom Brady and the offense to come back late in the fourth quarter.
Unreal Fourth Quarter Comeback by Tampa Bay
As the game went on, the Saints would follow up their touchdown drive in the second quarter with three short field goals from Lutz to extend their lead to 16-7 in the fourth quarter.
With around five minutes left in the fourth quarter, the offense needed to come alive to give themselves a shot down two scores. Later in the drive, on a third down at the Saints 45 yard line, Brady launched it towards Mike Evans in the end zone. An incompletion occurred, set up by a pass interference called on cornerback Paulson Adebo. This set up a first and gaol for the Bucs at the one yard line. The absence of Marshon Lattimore on the field was critical as it allowed Evans, Chris Godwin, and Julio Jones to make big time plays against the younger guys in New Orleans’ secondary.
Cade Otton would score on a throw to the corner from Brady. This made it a one score game, 16-10, with three minutes to go.
Tampa Bay went on defense and came up huge to force a three and out. Carl Nassib had an incredible sack to make it third and long. Tasysom Hill nearly caught another long ball from Dalton. However, Bucs’ safety Keanu Neal jarred the ball free to force a Saints punt.
Brady and the offense got the football back with a chance to win with two and a half minutes left and a timeout. They methodically moved down the field with big catches from Godwin and Jones and huge runs from Leonard Fournette. Fournette returned to the game and played very well. He had 49 yards and looked way more confident than prior games this season.
With eight seconds left, the rookie running back would score with three seconds remaining on the clock on a dump off pass from Brady to give the Bucs a 17-16 lead and eventually the win.
White on his game-winning touchdown catch: “We’ve been working [that play] all week at practice. I was just grateful coach called my name. I was just gonna catch it and do whatever I had to do to get the ball in the end zone.”
Up Next
Next week, the Bucs are back on the road against the San Fransisco 49ers, who are coming off a big win over the Miami Dolphins.