Saints Make You Earn Everything

Tom Brady has now started 40 games for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, postseason included, and his team has won 30 of them. Thirty-five of those 40 games have been played against teams that do not call Louisiana home, and the Buccaneers are 29-6 in such contests. That leaves five games against the New Orleans Saints, and only one of those went Tampa Bay’s way.

That the Bucs’ one win against New Orleans since the start of 2020 was in the playoffs is, of course, a critical part of the storyline since Brady’s arrival in Tampa in that it kept alive what would become a Super Bowl LV title run. It does not, however, erase the frustration of the last two regular seasons or make this weekend’s assignment any less challenging. After starting off their highly-anticipated 2022 season with a rousing prime-time win in Dallas, the Buccaneers now head to the Superdome, where they haven’t won or even come within a touchdown of winning since 2018.

As noted in our preview of Sunday’s game, there are some common threads in the Buccaneers’ recent losses to New Orleans, most notably turnovers, sacks and penalties, of which they’ve suffered quite a bit more than their opponent. Those could be elements of the “code” that Head Coach Todd Bowles said the Bucs have to crack against the Saints, but the home team won’t make it easy to do so on Sunday.

“They don’t make a lot of mistakes, they make you earn everything,” said Brady. “Every third down’s important, every kicking situation’s important, every third down in the low red area is important, turnovers are important. It’s a lot of things that lead to winning and losing and obviously we haven’t done a good job of that in the regular season. We’re going to have to play a lot better if we expect to win.”

The Bucs beat the Cowboys rather handily last Sunday night, 19-3, in large part because the defense was nearly impenetrable. Tampa Bay won the game by a 16-point margin despite scoring what was tied for its second-lowest point total in any game since Brady’s arrival. The offense moved the ball relatively well but struggled significantly in the red zone, settling for field goal tries on each of its first five drives. The special teams were strong across the board but the game was lopsided enough that the kicking game wasn’t really the difference.

Brady says the Buccaneers can’t rely on just one of those three units to dominate on Sunday in the Superdome.

“I think it’s just understanding why we’re losing those games,” he said. “There’s…