The New Orleans Saints crushed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 38-3 on Sunday Night Football. WWL NFL analyst Mike Detillier thought the first half was the best half of football he had ever seen from the Saints. And Zach Strief, the Voice of the Saints, was in agreement.
“I don't know that I've witnessed a more dominating victory, considering everything that's involved,” Strief said. “The quality of the opponent, the way in which you won the game, I don't think I've ever seen a more dominant performance in the Sean Payton era.”
The Saints outgained the Buccaneers 420-194. Rushing yards: 138-8. Passing yards: 282-186. The Bucs went 1-9 on third down and 0-3 on fourth; the Saints were 9-14 and 1-2 respectively. The Saints possessed the ball for a whopping 40:04. Dominating almost undersells it.
“I give Sean Payton a ton of credit,” Strief said. “They did such a good job keeping Tampa Bay on their heels. I thought the running plan was perfect. They really pounded the ball on the inside. You kind of see the development of the inside run game for this team, and it's a perfect fit against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
“The secondary did a great job of keeping things in front of them, making plays on footballs,” Strief continued, moving on to the defense. “Defensive line, we talked before the game started that the real key to this game defensively was making Tom Brady uncomfortable. And from the very first snap of that football game, they did just that up front.”
The Saints harried Brady all night, registering 3 sacks and 9 QB hits. The Bucs run game, which never really got a chance to get going with Tampa Bay playing from behind almost the entire game, was also limited to just 9 yards on 4 carries. That pressure helped the secondary come down with 3 interceptions; to make matters worse for Brady, the Saints also did an excellent job against his throws that weren't intercepted, recording 8 pass deflections.
“This one's pretty simple,” Strief said. “You give credit to everybody involved. It was a great plan. It was a great execution of the plan. It's hard to criticize one thing about that game.”
Strief pointed out how important the win was, sweeping the Bucs and moving into first place in the NFC South and the NFC as a whole. But that was not all.
“What I think is more important is that the team has now seen and felt what they're capable of doing,” Strief said. “It's no longer a conversation of [how] they have this potential or they could do this or maybe they could become this when you're eight games in and saying 'well, I don't know, it's not happening. People keep saying we could be, but it's not happening.' And that doubt creeps in. Well, you've just been given a full understanding of your potential; and that's a standard they're going to be asked to live up to each week.”
They'll be asked to avoid a letdown against some struggling teams. The Saints' next three opponents (San Francisco, Atlanta, and Denver) are a combined 9-17.
