Preview: Tampa Bay vs New Orleans - Sept. 7, 2008
By Mike Wynn Sports
With hurricane Gustav done and gone it looks like they’ll be playing football at the Superdome Sunday, and the Saints will look to put a very disappointing 2007 campaign behind them. Last year the Saints opened up the season with 4 straight losses and never really ever recovered or lived up to the expectations finishing the season 7-9. Tampa Bay on the other hand was a nice surprise finishing off 2007 winning the NFC South with a 9-7 record and a playoff birth. Big game for both teams here today, as divisional match ups are always doubly important, and both teams will be ready coming out of pre-season. So let’s take a look at both teams here and we’ll start with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Last year Tampa bay made a big improvement finishing 9-7 after a dismal, injury filled, 2006 campaign where they finished 4-12, and the biggest reason for the improvement was the addition of Jeff Garcia at QB to the offense. Garcia was just what the doctor ordered for Gruden last season. Garcia now 38 years old can still run an offense, protect the football, and give the offense some toughness. Cadillac Williams will start the 08 season on the Physically unable to perform list, so the load will fall on the shoulders of Earnest Graham. Graham rushed for nearly 900 yards last season and grabbed 49 balls for the Buccaneers. Along with Graham the Buccaneers have the 33 year-old Warrick Dunn back and speed burner Michael Bennett in the back field, which means Graham will be used early and often until Tampa gets Williams back. The receiving corps isn’t going to scare defensive coordinators. Aging Joey Galloway is another year older, Antonio Bryant has potential but is inconsistent, and Michael Clayton disappeared last year after a great rookie season. But what Tampa Bay lacks on offense lay make up on the defensive side of the ball. Tampa Bay was the number 2 ranked defensive team in the entire league last season and they ranked number 1 against the pass allowing just 170.5 passing yards per game. Tampa will be strong up front on defense led by Greg White & Gaines Adams. Last year Tampa’s down linemen recorded 30 of Tampa’s 33 sacks, so they get pressure with the front 4. The secondary, which is strong, should only get better with the addition of rookie Aqib Talib. Once again Gruden will look for his defense to carry them and look for his offense to not to give games away, and with Jeff Garcia at QB, they should do just that.
New Orleans is a team looking to put last years 7-9 season behind them. Saints pegged by many to make a Super Bowl run last year never got out of the gate losing their first 4 games. Brees was simply awful for the Saints in those 4 games last year throwing just 1 touchdown pass and 9 interceptions. Don’t expect more of the same this year as this is a very, very good Saints offense and their going to score a lot of points this season. Drew Brees will have plenty of weapons at his disposal this season starting with a dynamite receiving corps. Colsten & Meachum have the potential to be the best WR tandem in the league and the acquisition of Shockey at TE gives them another tremendous weapon. At running back the Saints are deep as they come. McAllister, Bush, Thomas, and Stecker are all expected to get a fair share of touches this season, and it’s easy to see why the Saints are going to be a nightmare for defensive coordinators this season. But as good as this offense should be this season the Saints defense is a big question mark. Defensively the Saints need big seasons out of their defensive ends Grant & Smith. The linebacking corps needs a healthy Johnathan Vilma to support a below average support group, and the secondary is a bit of a mess. Mike McKenzie their best corner is recovering form a torn ACL, and they have a lot of new faces in that backfield that haven’t played together. New Orleans is going to give up a lot of points this year, but with Sean Payton and that offense, they’re going to score a lot as well.
As far as this match up goes on Sunday, I’m leaning toward an over here. In the last 4 meetings between these two teams they’ve scored 45 or more points and I expect more of the same. No doubt Tampa Bay will try to exploit the secondary problems of the Saints, and I don’t care whom the Saints are playing this season, they will put points on the board. New Orleans has been waiting all off-season to show that last year was a hiccup, and Drew Brees is to good to open up the season with a 1 to 9 touchdown to interception ratio again this season. This could easily be 31-27 kind of game and we’ll take the over as a free play in this one Sunday.