Tampa Bay wins fifth straight game to remain in playoff search

Addison entered Sunday’s game as Carolina’s leader in sacks even though he’d missed the previous two contests because of an injury. New Orleans also on Friday signed a new linebacker, Travis Feeney, off of Pittsburgh’s practice squad. The Buccaneers now sit in the second wild card postseason slot with three regular-season games remaining.

If Tampa Bay can’t beat the Saints here, what makes it think it can win two weeks from now in New Orleans?

Well it’s pretty simple. The Bucs defense is an underrated bunch that will need to be good here against Brees and company if they want to produce a massive victory.

The Bucs have won five straight for the first time since 2002, the season they went on to win their only Super Bowl. So, Dennis Allen is missing his top two tacklers.

Well, it’s like beating a dead horse. Kenny Vaccaro was out on a season-ending Adderall suspension, forcing defensive coordinator Dennis Allen to reprogram how the Saints were going to play defense minus their do-it-all strong safety.

Tampa Bay is playing its best ball in recent weeks.

The Bucs didn’t commit a turnover.

The Minnesota defense made enough plays to send the Jaguars to their eighth straight loss, which ties a franchise record.

Seattle (8-4-1) has scored a total of 24 points in its four losses, all of which have come on the road.

Well the easiest way to breakdown this match-up is to point out the obvious. NY will have already clinched the fifth seed, meaning they’ll have nothing to play for.

Drew Brees ended the day with his worst performance of the season, completing only 60.9% of his passes (a season-low for him, believe it or not), and his second consecutive game with no touchdowns and three interceptions.

Follow along as we bring you live updates and analysis from the game from kickoff through the final whistle in the comments section below.

Winston was among the 34 former Alabama high school or college players (that didn’t play for Alabama or Auburn) who got on the field on the 14th Sunday of the National Football League season.

Jameis Winston certainly didn’t look much better than Brees.

The Saints blew a golden opportunity to stay in the race and damage the Bucs, putting up an anemic effort on offense in this one and essentially dropping out of contention with the loss. What was done before this game, however, and up to this point of the season has no bearing on the final four games. The Buccaneers have dropped eight of the last nine games to the Saints in this series, but they have some confidence going as they roll into this one.

New Orleans needs to be able to have that offensive balance throughout the game. Once again, the Saints could not get off the field on defense. Given the fact that the Packers and Vikings play each other, they most likely won’t give the Bucs much of a problem for a Wild Card spot.

The Saints must also be sound in the kicking game. In that stretch, the Saints have allowed 76 rushing yards per game and 3.1 yards per attempt. Yet, that doesn’t mean Drew Brees won’t be highly motivated to atone for their clunker of a game a week ago.