By Brandon Simmons
Are the Saints the Buccaneers’ Only Obstacle to a Title?
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a stacked team this season capable of winning a title, but somebody did not tell that to the New Orleans Saints. Sunday, a game that was supposed to be a duel of 2 legendary quarterbacks, turned out to be a slaughtering by the Saints’ efficient offense and menacing defense. New Orleans’ 38-3 victory secured the season sweep of Tampa Bay and ruined the debut of controversial Bucs wide receiver Antonio Brown, who the team signed a few weeks prior. This game was not so much about how good the Saints could be but rather how much of a blip this was for the Buccaneers’ season. Tampa Bay has been impressive all year, on both sides of the ball, but being swept by the Saints could be a troubling issue.
Tampa Bay’s loss should not take away from what they have done this season, but it should cause concern if it comes to a potential playoff matchup. The postseason is all about matchups and New Orleans has owned this matchup. In both games, the Saints put up over 30 points, while sacking Bucs QB Tom Brady 3 times, and racking up a total of 5 interceptions over both contests. They have figured out a way to get Brady uncomfortable in the pocket with their personnel and disrupt the entire Tampa offense. Even if their defense can’t handle all the Tampa weapons, the Saints offense can very much hang with that unit. New Orleans QB Drew Brees leads the league in completion percentage and wide receiver Michael Thomas returns to the lineup from injury. If the regular season ended today, then the Saints would be division champs and probably hosting the Bucs. However, Brady has been in enough playoff wars where a sweep should not affect him. On top of that, this team is stacked offensively, especially after signing AB and wide receiver Chris Godwin returning from injury. Their defense has been playing great as well. Still, that can mean nothing in the wake of this loss because a team can blow their whole successful regular season with one bad day in the playoffs (i.e. the Baltimore Ravens in last season’s playoffs). There’s no need to wait for the playoffs, New Orleans is showing they have what it takes to beat Tampa Bay with the team they have now.
The Patriot Way…Off
The New England Patriots’ Monday Night Football win over the New York Jets was a highlight of a lowlight season they were having. The Patriots sit at 3-5, which is 3rd place in the AFC East. Perhaps, their issues can be traced to COVID. Before the season started, several players opted out, including linebacker D’Onta Hightower and safety Patrick Chung, which could explain why the defense has been sputtering. But the offense has taken a step back as well, with one noticeably subtraction. For the first time in 20 seasons, New England does not have Tom Brady under center, who went on to lead the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offense. However, they lucked out in finding a former MVP as his replacement. Cam Newton is an accomplished QB, but he is more different, skill-wise, than what the Patriots are used to. That can bring about challenges on how the offense is supposed
Will the Patriots find their way? That is highly unlikely this season. This team is working its way through finding a new identity of being a running team which they are having success with. Currently, the Patriots are 6th in overall rushing. It’s a good running attack, but it’s not enough to get them past the Buffalo Bills and the surging Miami Dolphins, who both occupy the top 2 spots in the AFC East, respectively. This Patriots team does not carry the same mystique as previous teams before them. That was a huge psychological advantage for them, which was mostly due to Brady. Still, with all the missing players and changes to the offense, it will be hard for the Patriots way to find its way this year.
No More Playoff Teams
Tuesday, ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter reported that NFL owners have approved to add an 8th playoff team to each conference, should regular season games get cancelled because of COVID. While this seems like a generous move to correct any team’s inconvenience because of the virus, it is not a good idea. The NFL postseason does not need any more teams trickling into the playoffs. People are already complaining about the Eagles getting a spot via leading the poor NFC East division; of course there is going to be contempt about a team that is likely to be under .500 or dwelling in 3rd place for most of the season. Even with the previous format of 6 teams, there were still blowouts of some really good teams. It has yet to be seen what the 7th seeds will do, or whatever their record could be. Adding in a n 8th team, regardless of reason, just seems a bit much right now and a big waste of time.
No shoutouts or shutouts this week, so it’s on to the matchups. A lot of people will finally get a look at the Indianapolis Colts as they host the Tennessee Titans for Thursday Night Football. The Colts have quietly remained in step with the Titans for the lead in the AFC South. The other matchup fans could be talking about will be between the Miami Dolphins and Los Angeles Chargers. This will showcase two of the most talked about rookie QB’s from this year’s draft: Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa and Chargers’ Justin Herbert. Herbert has been impressive in his 7 starts but people have been just as enamored with TUa in his 2 starts. The game of the week could come from the Seattle Seahawks visiting the Los Angeles Rams. Seahawks are currently on a 2 game losing streak and wanting to get things back on track. However, Rams are coming off a bye week, in which they had to stew in a loss the whole time, so they will be just as eager to get things right. But until then…I’ll holla.
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