“The Bucs are Not the Same Team” (2 Viewers)

The is the exact same theme the media ran with prior to our second meeting. "The Bucs are better than they were week one." "Brady has had time to gel with his receivers." Blah blah blah. Remember the graphics below all the commentators on NBC prior to the game? Nothing but Bucs stickers across the board. Every single one picked the Saints to lose "because the Bucs are not the same team." Then 38-3 happened, and they all curled up in a ball and cried themselves to sleep.

They may pick the Bucs across the board again this week, but it won't matter one bit. If the Saints come out and play their best, we win because we're the better team.


 
Or so I’m being continually told by the media following our win yesterday.

I think it’s nonsense. They are the exact same team. Suspect defensively with an offense that can put up points if you let Brady get comfortable. They barely beat a 7-9 team Saturday to advance. That we throttled them was not because they were a bad team back then and have changed, it’s because we were a much better team and still are.

Regardless, get ready for an onslaught of “beating a team three times is tough” commentary when it’s simply not true. In the 30 times it’s happened, the 2-0 team is 20-10.

Doesn’t mean we win, but it does mean the media narratives are lazy.
It's the exact same story we heard on the second match-up. Remind me again how that turned out?
 
They're definitely better than we last played them and are a team trending upwards. And certainly Brady will turn up his game now that it's the playoffs. It'll be a competitive game.

When you play 4 of the bottom 5 defenses to end the season you do seem to be better. I’d say the Saints are actually the team that has the chance to be significantly better this go around just from a health standpoint. Will we play like it? Who knows! But, it’s a scary thought for Tampa I’m sure
 
I think they’re the same team, of course with a great QB that same team can beat any other team on any given day.

HOWEVER, they are saying how much better they are on offense

ummmmm you ended the year playing the following defensively ranked teams. 27th, 29th, 32nd, and 29th

yup this just like Steelers too with early schedule. Anyone can look rough against horrid units.
 
Brady will have better protection this time around vs. game two. I don't think we'll have near the pressure that we had game 2. Brady has also has had more time to gel with his unit, so he can get the ball out much quicker. In the end- what I think people are saying is that TB will be fielding a healthy, complete unit this weekend. I think that this comes down to trench dominance and coaching.

Couldn’t agree more. Brady and the Bucs will make plays. Brees and the Saints will make plays. Both sides have too many great players not to.

But the difference will be who wins the trenches. We won them by the edge of our teeth in the first game against Tampa but dominated the second time. We also out coached them in every facet the second game whereas the first game Bowles had the clamps on Payton.

This game will come down to our OL and DL and Payton’s playcalling. If he has a good feel and plan for what Bowles wants to do, I think it gives us a real good chance. But there are a lot of games, the Bears being one, where they don’t get what they think they will get and it screws everything up until halftime when they can adjust. That absolutely can’t happen. And if the OL and DL play like they did against the Bears, we absolutely will lose. But if they play like they did against the Chiefs, or even the way they did the second time, it’s a Saints win.
 
This game will come down to our OL and DL and Payton’s playcalling. If he has a good feel and plan for what Bowles wants to do, I think it gives us a real good chance. But there are a lot of games, the Bears being one, where they don’t get what they think they will get and it screws everything up until halftime when they can adjust. That absolutely can’t happen. And if the OL and DL play like they did against the Bears, we absolutely will lose. But if they play like they did against the Chiefs, or even the way they did the second time, it’s a Saints win.

Agree on the playcalling, but the DLine play yesterday was outstanding. They were doing a lot of mush-rushing to make sure to keep Trubisky in the pocket. It worked.

And the OLine play wasn’t bad at all. Ruiz did struggle a bit against Hicks, but we largely neutralized Mack. And their DL is much better than Tampa’s.

I do agree that they’ll have to keep Drew cleaner than yesterday, but I think/hope that can happen based on the difference between Tampa’s DLine and Chicago’s.
 
yup this just like Steelers too with early schedule. Anyone can look rough against horrid units.

I think a case could be made Washington’s D was a little overrated as well. They had some solid wins over the Steelers and a close loss to the Hawks. But we saw the Steelers were frauds and the Hawks haven’t looked right on offense since October.

Don’t get me wrong, I think their D is good but I don’t think they were a top 5 unit. They played some absolute dumpster fire offenses. Bengals (without Burrow), Cowboys, Eagles (without Hurts), Panthers (without McCaffrey), 49ers (against Nick Mullens). Then before the Bengals game they gave up 30 to the Lions. The same Lions team that lost 20-0 against the Panthers the next week.

I think Washington is good but I think people are really playing up the fact they were the number 2 D and “Brady had his way with them” when really, like the Steelers, they benefitted from playing backup QBs or heavily injured offenses for the second half of their season.
 
Brady can launch the ball. The main concern I have is lack of pass rush. It seemed like we struggled getting to Trubisky. Got to be better against TB. I don't necessarily think they're a much better team this go round. That was being pushed in our second match against them, also. I just think they are going to be much more motivated this go round, and we have to be at our best.
 
The refs are a major concern for the rest of the way for the Saints.

The media and the league itself have deified Brady, and they won’t want to see him get beaten 3x in one season by the “bad guy” Saints.

If the Saints do manage to pull things off against the Bucs, the Packers or the Rams would be cast as the hero vs the Saints as well.
 

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