The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the most unbalanced offensive team in the NFL, and they travel to the 5-2 New Orleans Saints. New Orleans is quite the opposite, they have a very balanced offense. They have a very potent rushing attack coupled by an always good Drew Brees led passing offense. New Orleans offensive line is very versatile, even with injuries all across the offensive line, Drew Brees has only been sacked a total of 7 times; which is amazing, considering the missing bodies. Led by Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram, they have amassed the NFC #7 rushing attack. Mark Ingram is the primary runner between the tackles, pounding out the tough yards. Rookie Alvin Karama has been one of Drew Brees more favorite targets, evident by his 32 catches second on the team behind second year receiver Michael Thomas. Mark Ingram is coming off of a two fumble game in which he vows to recover from. We should focus on stripping the ball away from both runners.
The Tampa Bay defense is going to have their hands full Sunday afternoon. If we are going to right this ship it’s going to fall on Tampa’s more experienced linebackers to save the day. Kwon Alexander and Lavonte David should be shadowing the running backs, containing them is Paramount to our success Sunday. It would be nice to see more turnover’s on defense. After last week’s offensive showing, They should be prepared to run the ball with Doug Martin to set up the play action to exploit the Saints secondary. If the buccaneers can get Mike Evans and DeSean Jackson some open looks down the field, we should be able to score more this week. Jameis Needs to take a back seat this week to Martin, the offensive line needs to step up and protect Jameis and to open rushing lanes for Doug. That should help limit the turn over’s that has plagued us the last couple of weeks.
I hope to see a better offensive game plan this week after Dirk came under fire about a lack of an unbalanced attack. At a respectable 3.8 yards a carry for Doug Martin. it’s on the offensive line to show we can hang in this division, because the NFC South is looking like the toughest to win, and New Orleans has a really good scoring defense. Random stat of the week is Tampa Bay’s inability to score more points in the second quarter; we are second to last with a 3.7 point avg. This game is going to come down to whoever can get the QB on his back, and who can control the clock by running the ball. The Saints would like to take advantage of the outside corners Vernon Hargreaves and Robert McClain, who is returning after being in concussion protocol, but I expect a dominate showing from our secondary this week, I’ve seen steady improvement from them. I see Tampa pulling out a win and going to 3-5.