Buccaneers Can Establish Big Lead in NFC South with Win Over Saints
We all know how people within the game -especially those involved personally or professionally- love to parse the game of football. One way of doing so is by breaking down a team's postseason goals into three objectives: Win your division. Win home field advantage. Win the Super Bowl.
Tampa Bay (as well as the rest of the NFL) is obviously still in the first stage of the process. As it just so happens, the Bucs are currently in first place with a one-game lead in their division, the NFC South.
The team that's in second place? Well, of course it's no one else than the New Orleans Saints, the next opponent on the Bucs' schedule.
The Saints are 4-2 on the season despite losing one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history during the offseason and dealing with a litany of injuries to key spots so far this season. Sean Payton is doing his thing and showing why he's one of the best coaches -if not the best coach- in the NFL.
The rest of the NFCS shakes out with the 3-3 Atlanta Falcons and the 3-4 Carolina Panthers. The Bucs beat the Falcons back in Week 2 and won't play Carolina until Weeks 16 and 18.
The Bucs are already a comfortable 2.5 games ahead of the Falcons and three games ahead of the Panthers when it comes to winning the NFCS, but a one-game lead is nowhere near the same in terms of comfort level. Especially since said one-game lead has a chance to completely evaporate after this week.
But a 2.5 game lead? With 10 games to go in the season?
Didn't I just refer to that as comfortable?
And when you add in the facts the Saints have one of the NFL's toughest remaining schedules and they have to play the Bucs one more time (which gives Tampa a shot to extend its lead even more), it's easy to see why this week's game represents the opportunity that it does.
It also means a lot in terms of the big picture. There are no more undefeated teams left in the NFC after the Cardinals' Thursday night loss to Packers, which means there are five teams with a 5-1 record in the NFC.
The Bucs know how much playing in your own stadium helps when it comes to winning the Super Bowl: They hosted a playoff game in 2002 and won the Super Bowl in Raymond James Stadium last year. So, they know how important it is to keep pace with the other teams in the NFC in order to ensure they don't have to make any travel plans come January.
"It's hard when you put yourself behind the eight ball and lose a bunch of games early in the year," Tom Brady told reporters Thursday. "You feel like you're always behind. You want to give yourself the best opportunity, especially down the stretch, and put yourself in a great position. It's just winning games, stringing them together, playing well consistently. We've done a good job of that. We've put ourselves in a decent position at 6-1 and after this game we get a bye week and a break. Everything goes into it."
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