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Week 14 GDT: Saints (10-2) @ Tampa Bay Bucs: ARRRRR


Canadian Saint

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Well after the humbling defeat at the hands of the Cowboys, the Saints go marching into Tampa to try redeem themselves. They go in, however, as the #2 seed in the NFC. We likely have to run the table for the rest of the season, and hope the Bears beat the Rams.

 

Tale of the tape:

For the Saints it will be interesting to see if the Tampa D can use some concepts the Cowboys did and have similar success. Those being:

1.) Interior pressure primarily through blitzes in the middle. This was mostly done by stunts and delayed blitzes. This really kept Brees off kilter and he never got into rhythm. When he can't step up, he's not as effective against blitzes as he can be.

2.) Keep a spy on Kamara. For the Cowboys it was LVE (holy **** does he look good), for most teams I imagine it might be a DB with speed.

3.) They got physical on Mike Thomas. If this reminds you for the Seahawks era Legion of Boom, you're not mistaken. The Dallas passing game D coordinator (or whatever) was the Seahawks D coordinator. Essentially it dares the the refs to call DPI on every play. This occurred when he was double covered too. Not having a clear cut #2 receiving option hurts us here.

Those three factors really hurt the Saints offense, and we'll see if the remaining teams can replicate that. The Cowboys have a ridiculously fast team, so other teams might not be able to copy them but they might make it tougher for us to score. Luckily we have one of the better offensive minds as our head coach. So I'm certain we'll see us adapting. Bucs have a top notch interior with McCoy and Vea, and the edges with JPP And Curry.

Injury Report:

Will Update when it's out.

 

Underrated Saint:

He's not actually underrated, but I gotta give him more props here. DE Cam Jordan. He and the D had an insane game last week and gave us every chance to win. Cam Jordan in particular really impressed. His play to get a sack and a timely fumble to give our offense one last chance to win really shows how far we've come since the dark days of the Saints D. Not to mention, he's got an awesome personality and a great leader on the D side of things.

 

Coaches Corner:

Saints have trouble in Tampa. We're 0-2 in recent visits to Tampa and we really need to change that. The Bucs love to pass, they have amongst the highest % of 1st downs converted through the air, and consequently they also have amongst the highest INT %. Eli Apple and PJ Williams will need to really step it up because Tampa's WRs 1-4 are all NFL caliber, and after the Cowboys showing, I'm sure they'll get targeted. CMC had a field day against the Bucs even if Cam threw 4 INTs. This bodes well for Kamara. Key is going to be stuffing the run and getting to Winston. If he gets comfortable, he can look like an NFL QB, however disrupting him will cause him to throw turnovers.

 

I think this will be an F U game from Payton. I'm expecting redemption and the very likely chance of us running up the score if possible. 47-14 Saints.

 

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1 hour ago, Canadian Saint said:

They got physical on Mike Thomas. If this reminds you for the Seahawks era Legion of Boom, you're not mistaken. The Dallas passing game D coordinator (or whatever) was the Seahawks D coordinator. Essentially it dares the the refs to call DPI on every play. This occurred when he was double covered too. Not having a clear cut #2 receiving option hurts us here.

This is squarely on Drew Brees. You can't tell me that one of the best ever QB's doesn't have a #2 receiver. He's too reliant on MT, and that will beat us if he can't get that out of his head.

 

1 hour ago, Canadian Saint said:

think this will be an F U game from Payton. I'm expecting redemption and the very likely chance of us running up the score if possible. 47-14 Saints.

Man, I hope you're right about this. It would be nice to officially bury them (or really close to it) at their stadium. The Buccs are only 1 game out of the Wild Card race, so you know they'll be playing for keeps. An F U game would be outstanding!!

Nice write up!
WhoDat!!

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7 hours ago, Mid Iowa said:

This is squarely on Drew Brees. You can't tell me that one of the best ever QB's doesn't have a #2 receiver. He's too reliant on MT, and that will beat us if he can't get that out of his head.

 

Man, I hope you're right about this. It would be nice to officially bury them (or really close to it) at their stadium. The Buccs are only 1 game out of the Wild Card race, so you know they'll be playing for keeps. An F U game would be outstanding!!

Nice write up!
WhoDat!!

I don't think it's totally on Brees.  You just can't expect an MVP level performance every single week with all the rookies and UDFAs we have at receiver.  We've seen terrible games like this from Brady and Rodgers when they've been thin at receiver.  

Brees deserves his share of the blame, but when balls hit you on the hands you gotta make the catch even if it wasn't the perfect pass like we're used to seeing Brees throw every game.

We'll see how it goes from here on out.  Tampa already beat us once and now we're playing them on the road.  I think our defense has improved drastically since week 1, and Jameis and Fitzmagic any given week could play like complete *** or an MVP.

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5 hours ago, Jlowe22 said:

I don't think it's totally on Brees.  You just can't expect an MVP level performance every single week with all the rookies and UDFAs we have at receiver.  We've seen terrible games like this from Brady and Rodgers when they've been thin at receiver.  

Brees deserves his share of the blame, but when balls hit you on the hands you gotta make the catch even if it wasn't the perfect pass like we're used to seeing Brees throw every game.

We'll see how it goes from here on out.  Tampa already beat us once and now we're playing them on the road.  I think our defense has improved drastically since week 1, and Jameis and Fitzmagic any given week could play like complete *** or an MVP.

I was only referring to the "we don't have a #2 WR" that you stated. I'd say, rather than not having a #2, we have about 17 of them, but who is it. I think that's on Brees, not the receivers.

Regarding last week's game, YES!! You can only hit receivers in the hands so many times before the blame should be shifted, appropriately, to the receivers. Hence my earlier comments about TreQuan Smiths drop for a very possible game tying/winning TD. That ball was as money as they come. Right at the eyes, as Brees brags about, rightfully so.

I can't say team loss at this point. The D held their ground. This was an offense loss. All 11, 100% Nobody played well. Literally, nobody.

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18 hours ago, tyler735 said:

Looks like Terron Armstead may be back this week. We really missed him last week against the Cowboys. Should help spark the run game a bit if he's back. His athleticism just can't be replicated by any of our other OL.

I agree. I wish he were more durable. He's never started more than 14 games, and the last 3 seasons the least he's missed is 6. I hope he's in good enough health to get us through the Super Bowl, if needed.

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19 hours ago, tyler735 said:

Looks like Terron Armstead may be back this week. We really missed him last week against the Cowboys. Should help spark the run game a bit if he's back. His athleticism just can't be replicated by any of our other OL.

I would rather him rest as long as needed and come back as close to 100% as possible. The odds of him getting hurt again are pretty good, so if the Saints are only going to get him back for 4-5 more games before he breaks again...make em playoff games!

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3 minutes ago, SWATcha said:

I would rather him rest as long as needed and come back as close to 100% as possible. The odds of him getting hurt again are pretty good, so if the Saints are only going to get him back for 4-5 more games before he breaks again...make em playoff games!

I'm all for him coming back when he is 100%, but if he's ready to go, I want him out there. 2 key reasons for this. We still are fighting for the 1 or 2 seed for playoffs, and having him out there obviously helps our chances. The other is, I want Armstead protecting our 39 year old QB's blind side, and not a past his prime Bushrod. The chances that Brees takes a big blindside hit that may injure him, decreases substantially with Armstead in there.

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Every game is a "must win" game for the Saints at this point. This week is no different for the Buccs. If they lose, they're all but finished.

Everybody is playing for keeps, and this is going to be an interesting, and likely fun match up, regardless of what the W-L column looks like for either team.

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1 hour ago, Mid Iowa said:

If they lose, they're all but finished.

IMO the Bucs have been finished all season. They’ve won more games than predicted and have some fight in them, but they’re not a real threat just pretenders who can get a little feisty sometimes.

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