By Tom Krasniqi

The Bucs looked absolutely lifeless in the Big Easy on Sunday.  Drew Brees made it look easy with 4 touchdown passes on the day as the Saints blew away the Bucs 41-0.  Tampa Bay has now lost 4 straight and drops to 6-8.  Saints improve to 6-8. 

This one was downright ugly from the opening gun.  The Saints won the toss and went right to work on the game’s first possession.  Drew Brees made it look easy.  He threw a 9-yard touchdown pass to David Thomas to give New Orleans a 7-0 lead.  It capped a 7-play drive spanning 74 yards.  Brees was 5-for-5 on the drive for 67 yards.  The Bucs did put together a nice drive midway through the first quarter.  Josh Freeman had key completions on 3^rd down to D.J. Ware and Mike Williams to get inside the red zone.  But Freeman was picked by Jabari Greer to end that drive in disappointing fashion.  Brees was 11 of 12 in the opening quarter for 129 yards. 

The Saints opener the second quarter with another score as Garrett Hartley booted a 25-yard FG to make it 10-0.  New Orleans went 74 yards on 11 plays but the Bucs defense did a nice job in holding the Saints to just three points on that drive.  The Bucs had something going when Roscoe Parrish returned a punt 39 yards.  But once again, Freeman was picked off in the red zone to end the drive when Rafael Bush made the interception.  Vincent Jackson ran the wrong route as he went deep and Freeman expected him to stay short.  The Saints made the Bucs pay as they marched down the field and scored on a Brees 2-yd TD strike to Darren Sproles to make it 17-0 New Orleans.   Brees threw his 3^rd touchdown pass of the first half when he found Lance Moore on a 7-yard strike just before halftime to make it 24-0.

The Bucs got the ball first and were forced to punt and that’s when they went into their bag of tricks.  Keith Tandy took direct snap and ran 18 yards for a first down to give the Bucs some hope.  But that was dashed on the next play when Freeman was picked off for the 3^rd time as he looked deep for Dallas Clark.  Brees made the Bucs pay again with a 34-yd TD pass to Joe Morgan to make it 31-0 Saints.  Garrett Hartley hit a 36-yd FG in the 4^th quarter to make it 34-0 Saints.  Mark Ingram added insult to injury with an 11-yd TD run to make it 41-0 late in the game. 

News & Notes:

• Josh Freeman had a day to forget with 279 yards and 4 interceptions.  His accuracy was off point once again and that should concern the team.  Freeman also lost a fumble so he turned it over a whopping 5 times on the day. 
• Drew Brees came out firing and turned in another stellar performance as he threw for 307 yards and 4 scores. 
• Danny Gorrer got the start at CB ahead of the struggling Leonard Johnson.  It’s safe to say that didn’t go well.
• Vincent Jackson didn’t record his first catch until 3:12 left in the third quarter.  VJax had 216 yards in the first meeting but Freeman’s troubles nullified Jackson in this one.  Jackson finished with 6 catches for 81 yards in garbage time.
• Credit the Saints defense for suffocating Bucs RB Doug Martin in this one.  Martin was held to 9 carries for 16 yards by the worst ranked rush defense in the NFL. 
• Da’Quan Bowers was active for the game after he was iffy coming in with a hamstring strain.  Bowers did record a sack of Brees. 
• Tempers flaring on the Bucs sideline when LB Adam Hayward and defensive assistant Bryan Cox got into a shoving match.  The two had to separated.   
• The Bucs return home next Sunday to host the St. Louis Rams in their final home game of the season.  Our coverage begins at 9am on 620 WDAE, your home of the Bucs.