Saints Prove to be Tom Brady and Bucs' Kryptonite

The Saints beat Tom Brady again, and they did it in impressive fashion on Sunday Night Football against the Buccaneers.

Author:
John Hendrix
Publish date:
Dec 19, 2021 11:17 PM EST

TAMPA -- The Saints impressed the heck out of a lot of people on Sunday night, and they improved to 7-7 on the season after winning their 7th straight regular season game over the Buccaneers in Week 15. They knocked off Tampa with Dennis Allen at the helm, shutting them out 9-0.

Game Recap

New Orleans started with the ball first after Tampa won the opening coin toss and elected to defer. The first two plays were nice to start on the first offensive drive, as Taysom Hill connected with Marquez Callaway for a gain of 8 yards, and then Alvin Kamara had a nice 8-yard gain on the next play. However, that was about it. The first drive resulted in a punt after running off 5 plays, as the offense could not muster any yardage after a promising start.

Tampa almost had disaster on their very first play on offense, as it appeared Marshon Lattimore intercepted Tom Brady. However, the play was ruled an incompletion. The Bucs would get heavy involvement with Leonard Fournette, managing to get one first down on their opening possession.

The Saints got the first points of the night, going 60 yards in 9 plays to set up a 39-yard Brett Maher field goal with 5:44 left in the opening quarter. New Orleans got a great 40-yard hookup from Hill to Callaway on a 3rd-and-6 from their own 36-yard-line to get into Tampa territory. The drive would stall out, but they cashed on on their drive to capture a 3-0 lead.

The Bucs found some success early on their next drive, mainly highlighted by a 23-yard hookup from Tom Brady to Chris Godwin. Just a few plays later, however, Brady would get sacked by Cam Jordan on a 3rd-and-5 play to force a punt. Easop Winston Jr. got a nice 34-yard return to help set the Saints up with some nice field position for their next drive.

The Saints would put together another scoring drive, going 40 yards in 7 plays. They'd get only a field goal out of it, as Brett Maher connected from 35 yards out. However, it was another good drive for the offense, led by Pete Carmichael Jr. calling the plays. Taysom Hill found Marquez Callaway for some big gains, including a 33-yard hookup that put New Orleans in Tampa territory.

The Bucs finally had their first running play of the game on their ensuing possession, a 3-yard run with Ronald Jones. They'd get one first down on the drive, but were stopped by the Saints defense and forced to punt. New Orleans countered with a three-and-out, giving the Bucs back the ball with 11:03 left in the second quarter.

As Tampa had their best field position of the game, they did make things a bit interesting. They ran off a 10-play, 30-yard drive that saw Ryan Succop miss from 45 yards. Mike Evans made a great catch working against Marshon Lattimore to pick up 14, but would go to the sideline after being injured. Some personal history was made on the drive, as Cam Jordan went over 100 sacks for his career. He's the 38th player to get to the mark.

New Orleans continued to have a couple struggles offensively after a nice start to the drive, running a short 5-play drive and punting back to Tampa with 3:37 left until the half. Tampa looked to get at least a field goal on their next drive after moving the ball well, but an incomplete pass to Cameron Brate that was initially ruled a completion to put them into a situation that saw Marcus Davenport sack Brady on 3rd-and-4.

The sack took them out of field goal range, and they punted the ball back to the Saints, who were able to escape being pinned at their own 1-yard-line and run the clock out for the half.

Second Half

Tampa got the second half kickoff, and they had to do things on offense without Mike Evans (hamstring) and Chris Godwin (knee). Leonard Fournette found some success running and catching out of the backfield, but they'd punt after being unable to convert a 3rd-and-2 after picking up one first down on the drive. Unfortunately for the Saints, they ran a three-and-out and punted the ball back to the Bucs, who took back over at the 10:42 mark of the third quarter.

Tampa ended up returning the favor, running a three-and-out of their very own. New Orleans ended up doing the same, as the Buccaneers got the ball back with 8:05 left in the third. The Bucs got a first down on their drive, but ended up stalling out afterwards and turned the ball back over to the Saints after gambling on a 4th-and-1 play. Brady threw up a long pass to Rob Gronkowski, but it didn't look close.

The Saints ran another short drive, which was just a quick three-and-out, punting the ball back to Tampa. They looked to capitalize on their drive, and it looked promising after Ronald Jones look good running the ball with Leonard Fournette (hamstring) out of the game. However, at the end of their 8-play drive, Brady escaped pressure and was caught from behind by Cam Jordan, who forced a fumble and saw Marshon Lattimore recover.

The Saints offense remained in their slump, running another three-and-out and failing to get a first down again. However, the defense stood tall again, forcing another three-and-out on the Bucs offense. The Saints got the ball back with 12:01 left in the game, and they'd dust off the cobwebs and get another field goal drive on their possession. Callaway got some catches for the first time since the first half, which accounted for 24 of the 42 yards on the drive. The 10-play drive took 4:33 off the clock and ended with Brett Maher connecting from 42 yards to make it 9-0 with 7:28 left in the game.

Tampa ran another three-and-out, as Brady couldn't find much success. New Orleans picked up a key sack from David Onyemata on 3rd-and-10 that wiped out the drive. The Saints ran a three-and-out of their own, and gave the ball back to the Bucs with 4:59 to play. Blake Gillikin had a great punt to pin the Bucs inside their own territory.

Tampa gambled by going for it on a 4th-and-4 from their own 9-yard-line, and ended up getting a pass interference call on Malcolm Jenkins to help extend their drive. After some misses by Brady, several plays later he was picked off by C.J. Gardner-Johnson, and the Saints took over with 3:40 to play.

The offense churned only 16 seconds of clock on their ensuing possession, as the Bucs used all their timeouts. It looked like they were going to get the ball back, but a roughing the punter on Blake Gillikin kept the Saints offense on the field. The Saints would bleed out the clock, eventually punt for real, and then Brady was unable to get anything going offensively to get points.