New Orleans Saints Get Back To Big Play Ways Against Buccaneers

It was a sight for sore eyes as far as Saints fans were concerned as the team finally put it all together offensively to produce their highest scoring game of the season in a must win game against the Buccaneers, a 31-6 rout.

This after a terrible game against the Arizona Cardinals in which the offense continuously stalled and was plagued by costly red zone turnovers resulting in a loss that dropped them to third in the NFC South.

Quarterback Drew Brees was able to get the ball down field on big touchdown plays throwing for 263 yards and three touchdowns. Two of his touchdown passes were over 40 yards, a 41 yards pass to Lance Moore and a 42 yard pass to Robert Meachem.

Even more impressive than the Saints aerial attack was the re-emergence of the run game that was ranked as the second worst in the league entering the contest with 76 yards per game.

However the Saints gashed the lowly Buccaneers with 212 total yards on the ground receiving the majority of that yardage courtesy of rookie running back Chris Ivory who rushed for 158 yards on 15 carries for a 10.6 yard per carry average.

Ivory’s performance can only be described as “beastly” as he continually beat defenders with his speed as shear power busting through tackles with ease. Luckily for the Saints he has performed well in the absence of Reggie Bush and Pierre Thomas and even when both return should continue to see plenty of carries given his amazing combination of speed and power.

The Saints defense rose to the occasion as well holding the Buccaneers scoreless until late in the fourth quarter when quarterback Josh Freeman found receiver Michael Spurlock in the corner of the end zone. The score wasn’t much more than a consolation prize for the Buccaneers who were aided by two back-to-back 15 yard personal foul penalties on Malcolm Jenkins.

Jenkins was flagged when attempting to tackle Freeman out of bounds during a third down play. Freeman took offence to Jenkins claiming it was a dirty hit and being in front of Tampa’s bench several Buccaneers players began tussling with Jenkins who finally stiff armed Freeman for his jawing.

The Saints (4-2, 2-1 division) have two home games in a row taking on the Cleveland Browns (1-5) and Pittsburgh Steelers (4-1) over coming weeks and hopes are the team can stay on track and continue this type of play moving forward.

Check out Keith Null’s weekly article about the Saints on NFL.com by clicking here.

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