The New Orleans Saints have a game that will ultimately decide whether or not they compete for a playoff spot or just sit down and get a high draft pick. They get to face off with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this week. Let’s be real here, the Buccaneers are the obvious favorite and by an overwhelming margin. I believe that they will win this game and split the season series, but I wouldn’t at all say this will be easy.
The Saints are 6-7 and have lost five of their last six, but man have they just had the Buccaneers number the last decade or so it feels like. That isn’t to say Tampa Bay is bad, but more so a compliment to the strategy and familiarity that Sean Payton has with this division rival. Since Tom Brady has shown up in Tampa, he has lost all three regular season games against the Saints, with that playoff game being his one win against them. I have that strange feeling like Taysom Hill could end up keeping this game close behind an excellent game plan from Payton. thought it will also take a huge team effort on offense because their weapons aren’t that great right now. Alvin Kamara has to get going in the pass game at some point and Mark Ingram will need to be active for that one-two punch in the backfield. Nick Vannett is seriously their top tight end target and with no Deonte Harris, somebody is going to have to step up and catch the football for the quarterback.
If we look at talent though, it just isn’t there right now. Tampa Bay is stacked on their offense, with an offensive line that has barely seen any starter miss significant time this year. Brady hasn’t missed a beat and outside of Antonio Brown, their weapons have fortunately been all healthy. Defense is a different story with numerous guys on their team missing games, especially in that secondary. The same issue has happened but the other way around for New Orleans. They have seen a ton of offensive starts miss time while being pretty much intact defensively.
What I don’t like about this game is that the Buccaneers will have a lot of time to game plan for Taysom Hill, which won’t bode well because he has been getting figured out pretty often in recent years. Trevor Siemian had success against them because the Buccaneers game planned for Jamies Winston that week, who wound up getting hurt. I always try and look for the positive for either side, but as somebody who always gives a truthful opinion, the Buccaneers will win this game. Their team is a lot better right now and are in Super Bowl contention for a reason. I have to admit though, it would be amazing for this Saints squad to miraculously get a win over their rivals here and somehow stay in contention for a playoff spot. That could be a wild sight for everybody watching! Regardless of whoever wins the game, at the end of the day I think it’ll be close the whole way through unless we see Hill fall apart at the end of the game. Similar to what happened against the Dallas Cowboys. Divisional games usually aren’t blowouts.