The New Orleans Saints are set to host their NFC South rival Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Divisional round of the NFC playoffs Sunday at 5:40 p.m.
Former Saints offensive lineman and current WWL play-by-play announcer Zach Strief took a look at three matchups he thinks will play a bit role in determining the game’s outcome when New Orleans hosts Tampa Bay Sunday.
Here’s the three matchups to watch in Sunday’s game:
Mike Evans vs. Marshon Lattimore
“With the weapons that the Bucs have and the way they’ve been playing on the outside, the ability to allow a 1-on-1 matchup to occur between those two would really help the Saints a lot. It’d go a long way to being able to create some more help over toward Antonio Brown, over toward Chris Godwin.
“I think the Saints have the best man-cover tandem in the National Football League in Marshon Lattimore and Janoris Jenkins. But you talk about guys who’ve really had other players numbers, Mike Evans and Marshon Lattimore, that has been a battle that Marshon has dominated. If he can continue to do it in this football game it gives the Saints a lot of flexibility.”
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Demario Davis vs. Ronald Jones II/Leonard Fournette
“Ronald Jones II (a game-time decision) has been their leading rusher this season, has averaged over five yards per carry. He’s got seven rushing touchdowns on the season. If the Saints can shut that running game down, the pressure is going to get to Tom Brady. Every quarterback in football performs worse under pressure but not necessarily at the level that Tom Brady does. His quarterback rating drops over 50 points when he’s faced with pressure as opposed to without it.”
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Saints tackles vs. Shaquil Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul
“Fortunately, the Saints are countering with, I believe, the best tackle duo in the National Football League, in Ryan Ramcyzk and Terron Armstead. If you’re getting pressure off the edge in this football game, if your able to get to Drew Brees, we’ve seen it in the playoffs the last couple years, it’s going to affect, even without all of the weapons on the outside, it’ll affect the rhythm of the offense. So those guys holding up against the top pass rushers in this group his imperative.”