Will Saints Make It Four Straight?
June 10th, 2018
Good data for Tampa Bay
You know what’s coming in 13 short Sundays!
Your Bucs open the season in New Orleans, and right now, Joe is sickened by all this fluffy love on NFL Network lately claiming the Saints have the best home field advantage in the league.
Sure, New Orleans is riding an eight-game home winning streak, including a playoff game, but Joe’s focused on the other Saints home streak. They’ve lost three consecutive home-openers. And you know who started that streak? The Bucs — in 2015.
And what a game that was – Jacquies Smith stole the show with three sacks and two forced fumbles, and America’s Quarterback, Jameis Winston, bounced back from the ugly “Tennessee-Ready” game to play excellent, efficient football while Kyle Brindza nailed four field goals in a 26-19 victory.
Of course, those Saints finished 7-9. But the point is that Sean Payton’s men, for whatever reason, start slowly in recent years. The Bucs, however, have won two consecutive opening days under Dirk Koetter.
Joe will happily say that is no coincidence. It’s also a soothing thought as we sit 91 days from kickoff in the Superdome cauldron.
June 10th, 2018 at 5:46 pm
Bucs trample Saints 41-10…..
Brees sacked 5 times and throws 3 ints.
June 10th, 2018 at 5:46 pm
I know…..it’s the Sunday night single malt…..
June 10th, 2018 at 6:12 pm
…and with no Mark Ingram.
Let’s do this!
June 10th, 2018 at 6:28 pm
We can definitely kick their ass plus with all of us Bucs fans in the Superdome it will be a difference for our boys.
June 10th, 2018 at 6:36 pm
You got me curious with this one Joe. Why did the Saints start off the season slow (0-2) then end up winning the division with a 11-5 record? They obviously made some adjustments in their game planning (early in the season) that worked. Went back through all their regular season games & their adjustments become very obvious after the 2 losses to Minnesota & New England. In those 2 games, the Saints did what they historically did: Passed … a LOT (average of 39 times each game). Ran … a LITTLE (average of 19 times for about 70 yds/game). In BOTH games they lost the TOP battle … convincingly.
Then the Saints adjusted starting in Game 3 … LESS passing and MORE running. In their 11 wins, Brees passed an average of 32 times per game. And they ran an average of 32 times per game in those 11 wins. EXCELLENT BALANCE in other words. They won the TOP battle in 9 of those 11 wins, and pretty much broke even in the other 2 wins. And this is incredible to me … they ran for 151 YPG average in those 11 wins. In their 5 losses, the Saints lost the TOP battle in ALL 5. They only broke 100 yds rushing in 1 of those 5 losses.
Pretty clear how to beat the Saints again this year: Do what we did in our last game of the 2017 season in beating the Saints, only do it better. Bucs won the TOP battle. Bucs won the rushing battle. Bucs also won the passing battle, although that’s deceiving (Jameis threw for more yards, but had many more attempts AND threw 3 INTs).
June 10th, 2018 at 6:57 pm
Dirk is 2-0 on opening day.
June 10th, 2018 at 6:59 pm
I realistically don’t think the Bucs will start the season strong, or finish strong.
June 10th, 2018 at 7:52 pm
And will Jameis be playing or will he be suspended?
June 10th, 2018 at 8:24 pm
With no Jameis? LOL…ain’t happening.
June 10th, 2018 at 9:24 pm
This team should be required to watch the NFL films presentation of our 2002 season every week starting in training camp and through our the season just to get the attitude of that team in their heads. I watch it every offseason and love the attitude that team had.
June 10th, 2018 at 10:02 pm
Good insight on one hand … But it implies the eagles will kill us week two.
June 10th, 2018 at 10:09 pm
And that’s fine by me if the season plays out right. Would love to lose to them week 2 and beat them in the playoffs like in 02/03.
June 11th, 2018 at 5:14 am
Bucs will have to take a page out of the Warriors playbook.. let the players draw up the plays like Jameis did to beat the Saints last time and coach and recruit new personnel.
June 11th, 2018 at 11:07 am
Not having their best RB and having to run right into Vea’s big arms I believe we should be able to stop their running and make them one dimensional; then let our pass rushers T off on them with hands high to deflect passes of their short QB. At the same time letting our new DB jam their receiver on his side and forcing their QB to try and pass on our All Pro. Should be a lot of fun for us!!!
June 11th, 2018 at 1:36 pm
I usually just read the comments, but I thought I’d say something this time. I must admit that I’m a younger Bucs fan, but grew up as such. The highlight of my younger grade school years is the Bucs winning the SB, and singing along with the Welcome to Ray Jay song that came out during that time with all of the players names being said on it. I guess you can say I’m on of the few Bucs fans of my generation, according to last week’s article by Joe. I have to say, some of the so called “fans” that comment on this site are truly toxic. You should be ashamed to call yourself a fan if you’re going to be cynical based upon what happened the season before. The reason I say this is because I can see we have made moves to improve. If this weren’t the case then by all means, bash the team before the season starts. How about we give them a chance this season, and root for them like the fans you say you are. How about some positive outlook for a change, at least until we are given a reason (in the regular season) to be negative?