- The New Orleans Saints delivered Tom Brady and his Tampa Bay a slap in the face, trashing them at home, 38-3.
- Drew Brees had four TD passes, and Michael Thomas came back on the field.
- Antonio Brown was back on the pitch after a long pause, but his debut won’t be remembered by any good.
Saints’ Terror in Tampa Bay
At one point, the fans could see an unbelievable picture. The Saints were leading 38-0 against the Buccaneers, deep into the final quarter. A team loaded with offensive potential, having the likes of Tom Brady, Mike Evans, Leonard Fournette, Rob Gronkowski etc, couldn’t score. Drew Brees, who was leading his offense without the slightest mistake, didn’t want to talk about that, but instead, he chose to honor his defense.
“As many weapons as they have on the offensive side of the ball, our defense just played phenomenal,” he said.
They would pick Brady twice, prevent him from scoring, and allow the six-time champ to pass for 209 yards, but also sack the former Patriot three times. He was visibly frustrated during the entire event.
Saints also completely neutralized Tampa Bay’s running backs, with the hosts posting 8 rushing yards during the entire game. It is, without a doubt, an unprecedented achievement this year, especially if you have Ronald Jones and Leonard Fournette in the backfield.
Meanwhile, New Orleans was rolling smoothly in the offense. Brees threw four touchdown tosses, 26-for-32, for 222 yards. He had nine different targets in the first quarter, heating his machine early on and continuing at the same pace throughout the contest.
Tre’Quan Smith and Andre Trautman scored in the first period, and after them, Emmanuel Sanders and Alvin Kamara struck in the second period. Josh hill closed the night in the fourth quarter.
Michael Thomas had five catches for 51 yards and was looking good after s long pause.
“It felt great just to be out there with the guys and dominate the game on all sides of the ball,” Thomas said.
Buccaneers Prime Time Problems
This is the third loss for Tampa Bay, second against the Saints, who defeated them in Week 1. Brady was far away from his expected level of play, and so was the entire team. It seems that playing in prime time matches isn’t suitable for this crew. All of their three defeats occurred in those games.
“We have stunk in those games. We won one of them should have won the other, but we didn’t. This one, we just basically handed it to them,” Bruce Arians stated.
Right now, the Saints are ahead of the Buccaneers in the NFC South standings, with 6 wins and two losses. Tampa Bay has the same number of wins, but one defeat more. Plus, they have 0-2 against the Saints, who will have an excellent opportunity to improve the current record.
Their following two matches are at home, and the opponents are the San Francisco 49ers and the Atlanta Falcons. The Buccaneers jump to Charlotte to meet the Carolina Panthers and after that, head back home to prepare for the match against the LA Rams.
