Tampa Bay Buccaneers Coming 'To Win The Game' Against New Orleans Saints

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a golden opportunity to clinch a playoff spot and make a statement with a win over the New Orleans Saints in Week 17.

There's a certain degree of compliment that should be associated with trash-talking, especially when it comes between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints. 

Simply put, if your opponent doesn't matter then you wouldn't put so much time into trying to convince them they don't, so when Saints and Buccaneers fans go at each other trying to articulate how little each thinks of the other it only increases the degree of heat between the two sides.

BucsGameday Staff Score Predictions: Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. New Orleans Saints

On Sunday Tampa Bay hosts New Orleans with plenty on the line outside of bragging rights and trash talk, and it's those things coach Todd Bowles says are on his mind. Not the rest of it.

"We're trying to win the division," coach Bowles said when asked about the Saints coming out for revenge this weekend. "We can’t worry about what they’re trying to get to. We’re trying to win the division, we’re trying to win the ballgame. They’re in our way; we’re in their way. We’re coming in trying to win the game.”

The Bucs were the first team ever to win the NFC South Division in 2002 and later that season became the first in the group to win a Super Bowl. But the same only won three total from that year to 2020.

Even in 2020, with the arrival of quarterback Tom Brady, the Buccaneers failed to unseat New Orleans as it went on to win its fourth-straight division title and seventh in the 19 years the NFC South had existed at the time.

Now, three years later, Tampa Bay looking to win a third straight coming to within one of matching the longest streak in the division and the most overall titles all at once.

And they're looking to get this one without Brady, whose departure signaled the collapse of the Bucs back to the bottom of the division and the NFL according to Saints fans and defensive end Cameron Jordan. 

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Guys like Jordan used to say this matchup wasn't a rivalry, in part due to the dominance New Orleans had shown in recent years.

Having one five straight against the team perhaps its the Buccaneers' time to say this game isn't a rivalry, though Bowles' comments suggest they'd rather just call themselves division champs again, and let Jordan worry - or audibly not worry - about the rest of it.