NEW ORLEANS (AP) The New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are both defying expectations
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Their divergent paths cross in a pivotal NFC South Division matchup on Sunday, with the Saints (5-2) aiming to consolidate their surprising hold on
first place, and the Bucs (2-5) desperate to prevent their season from looking
lost at the halfway point.
”We’ve been beating ourselves too often and somebody said a long time ago, more games in the NFL are lost than won, so it starts with not beating
ourselves,” said Tampa Bay coach Dirk Koetter, whose team was widely expected to
be a playoff contender after narrowly missing the postseason last
season.
Article continues below ... The Bucs have turned the ball over 12 times – tied for eighth most in the NFL. Tampa Bay has thrown eight interceptions – six by battered starting
quarterback Jameis Winston – and has lost four fumbles.
”We have to win the turnover margin and we have to out-execute our opponent,” Keotter said. ”We’ve played well in spurts, but we just haven’t been consistent
enough and the teams that have been beating us have beat us because they played
better.”
While Saints quarterback Drew Brees had done a lot of winning in his 17-year career
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playoffs.
The previous six-game winning streak came in 2011, when the Saints fielded the league’s most potent offense.
This year’s Saints offense doesn’t look quite as dynamic as the ’11 edition, which set an NFL record with 7,474 yards.
It has looked more like the more balanced attack New Orleans had in 2009, which was good enough to propel the Saints to their only Super Bowl. But Brees
contends the Saints still have plenty of potential to fulfil.
”We’re doing a lot of good things, but man just really scratching the surface in some areas,” Brees said. ”I feel like a lot of things can really bump us to
the next level I think on both sides of the ball and yet we’re still finding
ways to win games and we’re doing enough things well.
”That’s encouraging, but you also realize the games are only getting tougher and more important and more at stake and we’ve got to continue to fine tune and
get better.”
Here are some other things to know about the Buccaneers and Saints:
MIXED FEELINGS: The Bucs have the NFL’s second-most productive passing attack in the NFL and are fourth in total offense
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The team has totaled 2,636 yards this season, most in franchise history through seven games. Part of that can be attributed to playing from behind much
of time.
”With the statistics we have on offense, you can’t even imagine that we would be sitting in this position,” quarterback Jameis Winston said. ”But if we were
sitting at 5-2, and we had worse stats, there really wouldn’t be a
conversation.”
SECONDARY AMBITIONS: Saints safety Kenny Vaccaro sounds eager to see if New Orleans’ pass defense, which was statistically among the NFL’s worst the
previous three seasons, can build on a string of solid performances throughout
his club’s five-game winning streak.
That will mean containing receivers Mike Evans and DeSean Jackson
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”Our mentality is we’ve moved past that bend-but-not-break thing where you give up yards and still win. We want keep stopping people,” Vaccaro said.
”This will be our biggest test to date. … We want to prove a point. We want to challenge these guys and we’ll find out exactly what type of secondary we
have.”
CLOSING GAPS: The Saints’ defensive front has been susceptible to giving up sporadic big gains on the ground in recent weeks. Two games ago, they allowed a
46-yard TD run to Green Bay’s Aaron Jones.
Last week, Chicago’s Jordan Howard had a 50-yard run and QB Mitchell Trubisky scrambled for 46. Now New Orleans faces Bucs running back Doug Martin , who has
247 yards and two TDs rushing in three games since serving a four-game drug
suspension.
DEFENDING BREES: Containing Saints quarterback Drew Brees is a challenge everywhere, but Tampa Bay has had a particularly difficult time slowing him and
the Saints in the Superdome.
In his past six home games against the Bucs, Brees has thrown for 1,871 yards
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Tampa Bay has the league’s 30th-ranked pass defense and is last in the NFL with seven sacks.
”Anytime you’re playing a really good quarterback and he is able to stay in rhythm, it’s going to be a tough out,” said Bucs defensive coordinator Mike
Smith, who also had plenty of experience facing Brees as Atlanta’s head
coach.
”It’s going to be imperative that we try to get him flustered a little bit, whether it’s by changing up the coverage, whether it’s by adding extra rushers.
There are different ways you can do it.”
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AP Sports Writer Fred Goodall in Tampa, Florida, contributed to this report.
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