NEW ORLEANS — The Saints continued their regular dominance over the Buccaneers with a 9-0 shutout win at Raymond James Stadium. It's their seventh straight regular-season win over Tampa Bay.
Cam Jordan led the way on defense after missing last week's game while he was in COVID protocols. He put his stamp on the contest sacking Brady twice and adding 5 solo tackles.
"We hit him early, we hit him often. To get Tom Brady, he has one of the quickest releases in the game. To come in here to Tampa, this is the defending world champions and we knew everything we had to do would be on the defense." said Jordan.
It was a defensive slugfest throughout but the Saints offense made enough plays in the first half to get points on the board.
"You can’t say enough about what they (Saints defense) did after they pitched a shutout against a Brady-led team… they played incredibly well," said Taysom Hill.
Hill and Marquez Callaway connected on two 30 plus yard deep balls on two separate drives to get into field goal range. Brett Maher was able to make both field goals one from 39 yards and another from 35 yards.
At halftime, the Saints led 6-0.
In arguably their biggest win of the season the Saints were without their head coach Sean Payton and missing both of their All-Pro offensive tackles.
Dennis Allen stepped up as the interim head coach made all the right calls as the defense dominated in the win.
"We said going into this game we had to play with great effort and great energy against a really good team. We protected the football and played the field position game. I thought defensively we were really good." said Allen.
The Saints are now 7-7 with a wildcard spot in reach. They now have a 49% chance to make the playoffs according to FiveThirtyEight.
New Orleans will be back in the Caesars Superdome on December 27 hosting the 7-7 Miami Dolphins.