Well, it won't be a division title and it won't be a first round bye, so the Saints will have to settle for access to the playoffs by way of the wild card and final 6th seed. Give them credit, though, they took care of business today at home and earned it, ending the season with a pretty solid 11-5 record. Most impressively they annihilated a team they had trouble with on the road to end the year a perfect 8-0 at home. The NFC can thank their lucky stars the Saints won't play at home for this playoff exercise, because they are unbeatable there. The Bucs played poorly, especially on defense where they had huge lapses in coverage, but the Saints were on point. As I type this I'm watching the Eagles-Cowboys game, and the Saints will play the winner of this game away. Here are my post game bullets on the Bucs win:
- Brees was surgical. I can think of one overthrow on a deep ball to an open Ben Watson, but beyond that he didn't miss all day long. When he has time he is deadly. The Bucs had no chance.
- Speaking of Brees having time, the O-line was on point as they've often times been in pass protection at home. The run blocking was meh, like it has been all year, but they gave Brees time. He was only sacked once and hit three times. Terron Armstead gave up the one sack, technically, but Gerald McCoy got the initial pressure and led Brees into Clayborn (Armstead's man).
- The Saints' defense actually looked pretty poor, especially in the first half. They gave up a long touchdown drive and a long touchdown play on a flea-flicker, biting very badly on the fake. They settled in in the second half, though.
- I didn't think Mike Glennon was bad at all, he just couldn't keep up with the Saints' offense. He did throw one pick, but otherwise got the ball out quickly and accurately.
- I was disappointed with the Saints' pass rush. They did get 2 sacks but Glennon had too much time and they weren't getting to the passer like they normally do. Give the Bucs' blockers credit for playing well, but I'm hoping they can show us more in the playoffs.
- I thought the officiating in this game was terrible, and very anti Saints. Some calls were really poor. No reason to revisit them, though, because no matter how unfair it could have been there was no way the Bucs could get into that game. The Saints just dump trucked them.
- The Saints didn't run the ball well at all until Khiry Robinson racked up yards late. He had 50 yards on 12 carries and had another 20+ yarder called back for holding.
- The Saints started Roman Harper at strong and Malcolm Jenkins at free, and they would bring in Rafael Bush in nickel situations at free and move Jenkins to the nickel/slot cover corner. I guess this is the Vaccaro replacement plan moving forward. Scary to think the Saints' best nickel slot cover guy is Jenkins with all the injuries (P-Rob, Vaccaro and Greer are all done for the year).
- Tyrunn Walker had two personal foul penalties for blows to the helmet. I missed a replay of the second but the first was a pretty weak call. Brees probably gets that call too though.
- Malcolm Jenkins is poor as a center field deep ball last line of defense safety. I'm not sure he sticks around next year as he's in a contract year.
- The crowd was subdued from the very beginning. I guess it was the buzzkill of the Panthers' win that deflated the crowd, but it was one of the weaker showings by a home crowd I've seen.
That's all I got. The Saints will be in Dallas or Philly next Saturday at ~7pm central. Playoffs?!?! Can't wait. The party is over yet friends, we get at least one more week for our season!
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