TAMPA, Fla. — The Saints waited until week 16 to play their best game of the season - by far. Facing the prospect of losing and being eliminated from playoff contention, the Saints put a stranglehold on the Tampa Bay Bucs early and then hung on late, winning 23-13 on the road Sunday.
The Saints still need to beat the Falcons in the Caesars Superdome next weekend AND have Tampa lose to the lowly Carolina Panthers to make the playoffs. It was unclear immediately if they could make the playoffs as a wild card team. The amount of help the Saints needed coming in to this weekend was almost ludicrous.
"We knew if we didn't take care of business today, it didn't matter what happened anywhere else," said head coach Dennis Allen. I'm proud of the way guys played today... This game we play is hard. There's times you have to fight back after a tough loss... I felt like we did that today."
For the Saints, the game was dissimilar to many of the team's frustrating losses this year as they went out to a big early lead and were able to hang on by creating some turnovers in the second half.
The Saints had an impressive first drive, going 73 yards on 14 plays and consuming nearly eight minutes of game clock to make it 7-0.
It was 17-0 by halftime and the stats showed an incredible differential in yardage with the Saints having 202 yards to Tampa's lowly 44.
"We needed to start fast against this team," said Carr. "Until we run out of time, I'm going to keep believing and keep working."
For the Saints fans, the game was a head scratcher as the Saints showed their capabilities in a game Tampa badly wanted to win.
The game did see a handful of Saints leave with injuries that will be scrutinized this coming week in advance of the Falcons' game.
Alvin Kamara left with an ankle injury, likely the most serious injury of the group.
“He sprained his ankle. Got it looked at. Came out after half and just didn’t feel like he would be functional to help us win," said Allen.
Derek Carr had a solid game, most of his big plays coming in the first half as he finished 24 of 32 passing for 197 yards and two touchdowns - to Juwan Johnson and Taysom Hill.
Johnson caught 8 passes for 90 yards. Kamara had 10 carries for 45 yards and Jamaal Williams had 19 carries for 58 yards.
The Saints won the turnover battle 4-0.