New Orleans Saints Give 14 1/2 To Tampa Bay Buccaneers

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

So gone is a perfect season, but an equally impressive 15-1 record and home field advantage throughout the playoffs are still on the table for the New Orleans Saints. Still clearly the class of the NFC, the Saints close out their regular-season slate with a pair of divisional teams at the bottom of the conference. First it's the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this week, who are on the heels of their second win of the season.

This Sunday likely won't be a third as New Orleans is favored by 14 1/2 points, according to 2009 NFL Week 16 Betting Odds provided by BetUS, with a total of 50. Both numbers are the highest of the week, and for good reason.

The Saints have beaten the Bucs in two of the last three meetings, including a 38-7 blowout in Tampa Bay a little more than a minute ago. In that game, rookie Josh Freeman was picked three times and fumbled another to finish with a rating of 33.1.

New Orleans has since struggled, only winning one of it's last four games by more than three points, and hasn't covered the spread in any of it's last three games. In fact, it's only covered the spread in two of it's last eight games overall. It struggled to beat Washington late three weeks ago, then had to fend off the Atlanta Falcons, 26-23.

But the close calls finally caught up to the Saints, who seemed to be pressing down the stretch when a perfect season became plausible. They surrrendered a career day to Tony Romo, who led the Cowboys to a 24-17 win on Saturday night.

Drew Brees clearly had his worst game of the year, throwing one touchdown and an interception. But that did little to overlook his entire body of work in which he's become one of the top-three passers in the league. He is still the highest rated with 4,130 yards and 33 touchdowns.

Four receivers have at least 550 yards and multiple touchdowns, but the bunch is led by Marques Colston, who is only six yards away from his third 1,000-yard season. The Saints also boast two runners with more than 140 carries and 600 yards. Pierre Thomas has 141 for 733 and five touchdowns, followed by Mike Bell's 148 for 606 and five scores.

Reggie Bush also has five touchdowns.

But if Tampa Bay can consolation in anything it's that it finally broke from the bottom of the NFL with it's second win of the season, and first on the road. Freeman finally recovered from a disastrous two-game stretch with 205 yards and two touchdowns over the Seattle Seahawks, and Kellen Winslow had 93 yards.

It's been a rocky season for the Bucs, shuffling through three quarterbacks, and several assistants. Winslow has been one of the few bright spots on offense, leading the team with 752 yards and five touchdowns.

Their pass defense has also been relatively good, ranking eighth in the league. Barrett Ruud is fourth in the NFL with 121 tackles, and Aqib Talib is tied for eighth with five interceptions.