Brees, New Orleans Saints Route Tampa Bay Buccaneers

NFL News - November 22nd, 2009 - Written by John

Play perfectly, execute every assignment, and you just might give the New Orleans Saints a run. Fail to do so, and make untimely errors and, well, you're lucky to get out alive.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers learned that the hard way on Sunday, when Josh Freeman turned the ball over four times, including a fumble deep in his own territory to set up a touchdown that essentially broke the game wide open in the third quarter, and the Bucs lost 38-7.

The Saints covered the eight-point spread, and are the first NFC team to win it's first 10 games since the Washington Redskins did it in 1991.

Drew Brees finished with solid, yet unremarkable numbers against yet another hapless team. He threw for 187 yards and three touchdowns, mostly in the first half before head coach Sean Payton elected to run the ball more prominently. That particular unit was fluid, too. Pierre Thomas ran for 92 yards to lead a unit that gained 183 on the night on a 5.1 average.

The Saints are now 10-0 for the first time in franchise-history with their biggest obstacle coming this week when the New England Patriots travel to the Superdome. After that, their last five opponents are a combined 20-30, giving Payton the luxury of finishing the season strong while getting some reserve players some much-needed snaps.

With Reggie Bush out of the lineup, Brees put together another masterpiece, finding eight different receivers in the first half. After Freeman started the scoring with an impressive throw on the run to find Michael Clayton in the back of the end zone, Brees tied the game at seven-all with a touchdown toss to Robert Meachem. It was Meacham again right before halftime that drove the lead even higher, catching a ball on a slant route from the six.

With the game still at a manageable distance, the Bucs finally blew up in the second half and the notion that their mistakes would go unpunished finally drifted away. Scrambling around at his own 25, Freeman lost control of the ball and it was recovered by Anthony Hargrove in the red zone. The Saints made him pay immediately, needing just three plays to set up a touchdown pass to David Thomas.

Running back Mike Bell added two more touchdown runs inside the five-yard line, and New Orleans narrowly missed another 40-point game.

To discuss this and other NFL related stories be sure to check out our new forum at:
https://www.usaplayers.com/forums