There is so much hype surrounding the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and many expected this team to come out firing, but in Week 1, Tampa Bay traveled to New Orleans to battle the Saints in Tom Brady’s debut with the team. However, it did not turn out very well for Brady and the Buccaneers.
The future Hall of Famer was intercepted twice, including a pick-six by Janoris Jenkins, as the Buccaneers would fall to New Orleans 34-23. Since that game, a lot has changed with the Buccaneers. The team has won three straight and six out of the last seven, and now, Tampa Bay(6-2) is on top of the NFC South and are looking to stay there when they host the Saints(5-2) on Sunday Night Football.
At 6-2, Tampa Bay is off to their best start since 2002, but the Saints have beaten the Buccaneers four straight times, and according to Tampa Bay LB Shaquil Barrett, Tampa Bay can’t wait for the rematch.
“We’ve been itching for this game,” Barrett said on Friday. “We know they’ve had our number for the last three games we played [against them]. We’ve got to step up [and] we’ve got to do something different to give ourselves a chance to win this game. [We have] got to get some sacks [and] get some turnovers, but we’ve still got to maintain that strong defensive front where [if] we don’t allow [any] rushing and few passing yards, we’ll be able to get the job done. This is a big-time game for us for the No. 1 seed, and it will set us up for where we want to be at.”
Tampa Bay’s defense has been playing well of late and is getting after the quarterback. The Buccaneers have posted at least 3.0 sacks in each of the past four games, and Barrett thinks the defense has improved a lot since Week 1.
“We’re a lot better,” Barrett said. “We’ve been working on our mistakes that we knew we had to work on since last year, which is communication [and] two-minute, end of game [situations]. We’ve been trying to get better at that. We know what we have to fix [and] we’ve been trying to fix it, so I think that’s one of the key things.”
This is a big game, and there is no getting around it. If the Saints win on Sunday, they would have swept the season series, which would be huge if these two teams would have identical records at the end of the season. Games like this are why you bring in Brady, and it’s time for him to deliver on Sunday night. Expect a tremendous performance out of Brady and the Buccaneers.
Leave a Reply