The New Orleans Saints are 2-0 since linebacker Demario Davis started giving the pre-game speech that was traditionally reserved for quarterback Drew Brees.
But Davis was quick to point out that the Saints “were 13-3 when Drew was giving ‘em.”
“I would take 13-3 any season,” Davis said.
Davis starting delivering the messages intended to fire up his teammates, with Brees’ blessing, ahead of the Saints win against Seattle two weeks ago.
New Orleans’ quarterback missed the game as he was recovering from surgery on the right thumb that was injured in the Saints Week 2 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. Brees was in attendance for the Saints 12-10 win against the Dallas Cowboys Sunday but deferred the pregame speech duties to Davis once again.
And when Brees, who’s still expected to be out a few more weeks, returns, he’s expecting Davis to still play a roll in the pregame speech.
“As he gets ready to come back, we are actually talking about working on a collaboration now to try to figure out how we could work together to get the team hype,” Davis said.
But before that happens, Davis wants to make sure the 3-1 Saints keep winning and to do that they’ll have to get past their first NFC South opponent of the year in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Sunday at noon in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
Led by new head coach Bruce Arians, the Buccaneers are coming off of a franchise-record 55 points in a win a against the Los Angeles Rams, the only team to beat the Saints this season.
“They are playing good football,” Davis said. “They are executing at a high level. Really good offensive line, really good backs, (quarterback) Jamies (Winston) is executing at a high level, some really good tight ends, they make a lot of explosive plays. So it’s going to be another intense game for us.”
Winston is currently completing 62.6 percent of his passes and is fifth in NFL with 1,167 yards as two of his targets are among the top six in yardage among the NFL’s receivers.
“They’re explosive at receiver,” Saints coach Sean Payton said. “I think their offensive line's playing a lot better, physical. They do a good job with mixing the run and the pass, but I think their explosiveness and the depth they have at that position is impressive.”
Chris Godwin leads Tampa Bay with 388 yards and Mike Evans is leading the league with four catches of at least 40 yards.
“They go deep,” Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore said. “We’ve got to defend the shots, defend the run. That run sets up the play-action or the drop back pass. It all goes hand and hand. So we’ve got to stop the run and stop the big plays and we’ll come out victorious.”
