The
New Orleans Saints opened their divisional account when they hosted the
Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. Here’s a quick look at all that went down.
First Quarter
Spencer Rattler got the Saints up and running on the game’s first drive with a pair of 10-yard passes to Rashid Shaheed and Devaughn Vele, but his fumble soon after was recovered by Lavonte David to give the visitors the ball.
But Tampa Bay was unable to make anything of the turnover, with Chase Young and Justin Reid getting to Baker Mayfield to force a punt.
The Saints were then able to find some momentum on the ground through Alvin Kamara, and Rattler found Shaheed and Juwan Johnson to move the drive into Bucs territory, but SirVocea Davis sacked the quarterback for a 10-yard loss, and a punt followed.
A neutral zone infraction against Jonathan Bullard was the final action of the first, as the Bucs sought to find the game’s first score.
Second Quarter
The Bucs drive was by far the longest of the day, with 17 plays and over 10 minutes of action. Mayfield connected with Emeka Egbuka on the biggest play for 24 yards, and Tampa Bay found themselves with 1st-and-goal on the 1-yard line.
But the Saints were able to come up with a huge defensive stop, stopping four straight runs for no gain and forcing a turnover on downs, keeping the game scoreless.
Nevertheless, the defense’s work was quickly undone. After finding Kamara for 9 yards, Rattler looked to find Foster Moreau, but his pass was intercepted. Anthony Nelson ran the short distance into the end zone, and the visitors went up 7-0.
The following four possessions were all short lived, as the teams traded punts before Shaheed fumbled after a catch, and then Mayfield fumbled just plays later. Chase Young forced it out and recovered the ball for New Orleans.
Despite taking a sack, Rattler was still able to do enough in under a minute to set up Blake Grupe for a 48-yard field goal that took us to halftime at 7-3.
Third Quarter
Mayfield took no time to get going in the second half, connecting twice with Tez Johnson for big yardage as the Bucs carried out another long drive. Cade Otton caught a 21-yard pass, which was initally called a touchdown before video review put him down at the 1.
The Saints were still able to stop three straight plays from the 1, but this time, the visitors made no mistake on 4th down. Sean Tucker ran it in to give Tampa Bay a 14-3 lead.
A variety of penalties gave the Saints no life on the ensuing drive, and they punted.
Starting near midfield, Mayfield found Otton and Egbuka again as the Bucs quickly landed in field goal range. Chase McLaughlin was good from 55 yards out to extend the advantage.
Tyler Shough would then enter at quarterback for the Saints, marking the first competitive action of his NFL career.
His first throw was complete to Taysom Hill and the black and gold were able to move the chains once, but Chris Olave soon failed to haul in a pass that ended up in the hands of Antoine Winfield Jr for an interception.
Fourth Quarter
The Bucs had found field goal range again with a pass to Johnson for 14 yards, but there would be no more yards gained on the drive. McLaughlin was good from 52 this time to make it 20-3.
Shough quickly found himself on 4th-and-2 as the Saints looked for life offensively, but he was incomplete to Juwan Johnson for a turnover on downs.
Sean Tucker managed just 8 yards on the ground for Tampa Bay, but their starting field position was good enough that it set up a 52-yard kick from McLaughlin who was accurate again.
Shough was then able to find both Johnson and Shaheed as the Saints drove into Bucs territory, but was soon sacked on his way to another turnover on downs.
The Bucs ran a few short runs, punting with just over two minutes to play, before a 58-yard drive from Shough bore no fruit and the Saints ran out of time.
Tampa Bay wound up 23-3 victors, and attention now turns to New Orleans’ visit to SoFi Stadium as they face the Rams on November 2nd.
(@SaintCraftRadio) 
