Rod Walker: Yes, Saints now look like Super Bowl contenders after demolishing Bucs | The Saints



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Drew Brees completed assists to 11 different Saints on Sunday night.

Tom Brady made passes to three different Saints which tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the Brees vs Brady imbalance Part 2.

Saints beat Buccaneers to sweep season playoffs and take NFC South lead

TAMPA, Florida – At a billed as a flagship performance featuring two future Hall of Fame quarterbacks as the show’s headliners, New Orleans…

This one was All Brees and All Saints, who took down the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 38-3 and ultimately watched the part of a team that came into the season with those high aspirations.

“Super Bowl or bust,” the Saints players repeated over and over again during the preseason.

Thanks to an impeccable performance in Tampa on Sunday night, a second trip to Raymond James Stadium – site of Super Bowl LV – the first week of February finally looks realistic.

Yeah, the Saints had won four in a row before Sunday, but they were a team with a few flaws.

There was none on Sunday.

What we learned, trends and final thoughts from the Saints' resounding victory in Tampa

TAMPA, Florida – Oh, is that what the New Orleans Saints were supposed to look like?

It took eight games, but the Saints pulled it all together and looked like a team that belongs to the Super Bowl conversation.

Put simply, it was as perfect a performance as you’ll ever see.

“It’s poetry in motion when it goes like this,” said Alvin Kamara.

What was supposed to be a made-for-TV showdown ended up being a rout, led by Brees, who did her Oprah Winfrey impersonation – “You get a pass, you get a pass” – early and often in this one.

Brees threw assists to eight receivers in the first 10 minutes of the game and to nine receivers at the end of the first quarter. By night’s end, he had completed 26 of 32 passes for 222 yards and four touchdowns, helping him regain the advantage over Brady in the NFL record book for career touchdowns.

Brees is now 564 to 561. Brady (22 of 38 for 209 yards) threw three interceptions and had no success against a Saints secondary who had struggled this season but appeared to be solving his problems against one of the arsenals. the most powerful in the league. of receivers, a group that added Antonio Brown to the mix on Sunday.

It didn’t matter, especially since Brady barely had time to find one of his receivers due to the Saints’ pass rush.

Brees now leads the all-time series against Brady 5-2, sweeping the series this season and putting the Saints in a good position to win a fourth straight division title.

Other than a Jared Cook fumble in the first half near the goal line, Sean Payton will be hard-pressed to find anything to dislike about this one.

The most points the Saints have ever scored in a game was 62 in a resounding victory over the Indianapolis Colts in 2011. The Payton Saints were halfway there by the time they went to the locker room at halftime with a 31-0 lead.

It was the Saints’ fifth consecutive victory (6-2). But that was by far the most impressive, facing a quality opponent who also had Super Bowl aspirations. The Bucs entered this game playing as well as anyone in the NFC and were considered by many to be the co-favorites with the Seattle Seahawks during the conference.

But you wouldn’t have known that by the way the Saints manhandled them through every phase of the game from start to finish, delivering an early knockout that the Bucs never recovered from.

Bucs stopped here: Saints defense does everything in dominant performance

TAMPA, Fla .– It had been a really horrible night for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but at least they could have this little thing, right?

The Saints came close to registering their first shutout since 2017, when they shutout the Miami Dolphins 20-0 in London. The win three seasons ago was the second in a row in what has turned into an eight-game winning streak. With a favorable schedule on the horizon, starting next week against the San Francisco 49ers, the Saints could very well be set for a similar streak or more.

It helps, of course, that they now have all the pieces of the puzzle on offense. Michael Thomas, who hadn’t played since week 1, and Emmanuel Sanders, who missed the last two weeks, returned.

Thomas and Sanders are back.

And the saints also seem to be back.

“Being able to do it against a ball club like this says a lot about who we are and where we want to go,” said Demario David.

And where they want to go is back to Tampa in February.

Sunday night they looked like a team that could do it very well.

Watch: Jameis Winston returns to 'eat a W' after Saints demolish the Buccaneers

Jameis Winston got his first shot in the Saints’ uniform on his first comeback to face his former team on Sunday night – and he’s also returned to “…

Watch: Sean Payton dancing, Jameis eats more W and lots of joy in the Saints locker room

The New Orleans Saints’ Sunday night beating against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers might have been unexpected, but the way they celebrated was not.


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