TAMPA, Fla. – The mystical soothsayer deep in the Louisiana Bayou that works her ancient voodoo against Tampa Bay when the Buccaneers are scheduled to set sail against the New Orleans Saints was at it again on Sunday night in the Buccaneers’ shocking 9-0 shutout loss at Raymond James Stadium.
Injuries to starting wide receivers Chris Godwin (knee) and Mike Evans (hamstring) drove the duo out at halftime. Then Leonard Fournette (hamstring) was lost midway through the third quarter as seven starters went out for the Buccaneers on Sunday evening.
As the starters were struggling, the backups were out of sync with quarterback Tom Brady, who was under heavy duress all evening.
“Obviously, the young guys, I was hoping they would step up a little more,” said Tampa Bay head coach Bruce Arians. “We dropped some balls and they played a hard man-to-man and we did not to a good job getting open.”
Tampa Bay’s offense was sailing the high seas of the NFL over the past few weeks in the greenest waves in the Gulf of Mexico as the Buccaneers led the NFL averaging 410 total yards per game, as well as a league-high 31.5 points coming into Week 15.
On Sunday night, it felt like the ship was frozen in time against a relentless New Orleans Saints defense that handcuffed the Buccaneers with its speed and quickness from start to finish.
The Buccaneers offense ran 71 plays for 302 yards, an average of 4.1 yards per play. That was still better than the putrid New Orleans offense that was put in the spoils after quarterback Jameis Winston went out for the season with a knee injury the last time the two teams met on Halloween.
The speed on the New Orleans front-seven overwhelmed the Tampa Bay offense as quarterback Tom Brady was sacked four times, with three in the first half, and also three times by Cameron Jordan.
Brady has seen his own struggles against New Orleans. Sunday night’s loss was the first time Brady had lost to any team four times in a row in his 21-year career. A Brady-led team had not been shut out since Dec. 20, 2006 in a 21-0 loss to Miami, representing 255 consecutive starts without a shutout.
“We didn’t execute great obviously,” said Brady. “Didn’t do much anything right. We have got to get better and get back to work. There’s a lot of football left.”
The Buccaneers’ offensive line was severely in a mismatch with the speed of defensive end Cameron Jordan, who missed his first game of his 11-year career last week with Covid-19. Demario Davis and company held Tampa Bay’s offense to 261 total yards.
“They have a really good scheme tough to go against,” said Brady. “They are a well-coached team with lots of veteran players who played together.”
Perhaps the best example of the bizarre game happened late in the third quarter with the Buccaneers entering their deepest surge into New Orleans territory at the Saints 24-yard line. Brady scrambled up the middle on a third-and-seven and had picked up the first down when Jordan hit him from behind, jarring the ball loose, and cornerback Marshawn Lattimore recovered on the Saints 13-yard line.
“A lot of guys got banged up tonight that’s part of football,” said Brady. “We have got to figure out who can come in and have a great week of practice.”
Maybe what was most embarrassing, though, was losing to one of the worst passing quarterbacks in recent memory in Taysom Hill.
Hill has a 60.1 quarterback rating that doesn’t even post on the NFL stats lists that are released by the league each week.
Tampa Bay’s defense held him to 154 yards on 13-of-27 passing as he never threatened the injured Bucs’ secondary which was missing safety Antoine Winfield, Jr., and nickel back Jamel Dean.
“The last couple years, the Saints keep beating us in regular season,” said Bucs safety Jordan Whitehead. “To close this out would have been big. We have gotta get to work.”
The Buccaneers are 1-7 against New Orleans in the last eight meetings. The Saints, including the 11.5-point underdogs on Sunday, unequivocally have had the Buccaneers’ number in recent meetings.