For all the grief Reggie Bush has taken in the past year, one play Sunday afternoon gave a glimpse of why the New Orleans Saints continue to have faith in him.

Bush caught a pass from Drew Brees in the right flat, turned up field, split two defenders and was gone, ending in the end zone 42 yards later.

The touchdown gave the Saints a lead they would never relinquish and New Orleans defeated Tampa Bay 24-20 in the season opener at the Superdome.

“I didn’t even think I was going to be able to get to it,” Bush said. “It was thrown out in front of me. I was just straining to even get to it. I made the catch, I made the play and the rest is history.”

Bush finished the game with 51 yards rushing on 14 carries, but had 112 yards receiving and that one important score.

“The Saints made big plays,” Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden said. “The reason that we haven’t given up a lot of yards historically is that we don’t give up the explosive plays. They were able to get a couple of big ones today.”

But more importantly, the Saints defense bowed up when it absolutely had to, holding the Buccaneers out of the end zone in the final 2½ minutes to preserve the win.

On fourth-and-five from the Saints 24, Scott Fujita intercepted Tampa Bay’s Jeff Garcia, sending more than 69,000 fans into a cathartic frenzy days after the city began repopulating after Hurricane Gustav forced a mandatory evacuation.

“We brought in new personnel that I don’t think we showed them throughout the game,” Saints linebacker Jonathan Vilma said. “We had someone spying the quarterback and that was Scott Fujita. He read his eyes and made a great play on the ball.”

Brees finished the game 23-of-32 for 343 yards with three touchdowns and an interception. 

And a year after Tampa Bay’s third-string quarterback torched the Saints in the Dome, the Bucs starter Jeff Garcia was average, completing 24-of-41 passes for 221 yards with a score and an interception.

“We challenged them this week,” New Orleans head coach Sean Payton said of the secondary. “We kind of heard about this white tiger. We challenged our guys in the back and I think they responded pretty good.”

Pierre Thomas picked up the first touch of the season, gaining four yards up the middle. Five plays later, Brees found David Patten open on a corner route, hitting the receiver for a 39-yard touchdown reception.

Martin Gramatica’s extra point gave New Orleans a 7-0 lead just 3 minutes, 33 seconds into the season.

After the Saints defense held the Bucs to a three-and-out, the wheels on the Saints wagon began wobbling.

Tampa’s Barrett Ruud entered New Orleans’ backfield untouched, hitting Brees right as he threw the ball. The hit caused Brees to throw the ball short and the Bucs Phillip Buchanon intercepted it, returning it 26 yards for a game-tying touchdown.

New Orleans’ defense held for much of the first half, allowing Tampa Bay only 84 yards through the opening 28 minutes. But then the Bucs got into their two-minute offense and moved 61 yards in less than a minute and a half.

Matt Bryant gave the Bucs a 10-7 halftime lead 37-yard field goal.

The Saints tied the game at 10-10 when Gramatica hit a 34-yarder in the third quarter. The Bucs answered with another Bryant field goal, this time a 33-yarder.

It took only one play for the Saints to grab their first lead since early in the first quarter. Brees stepped up and hit Devery Henderson on a go route for an 84-yard bomb. Tampa’s Ronde Barber fell down on the play, leaving Henderson open to give New Orleans a 17-13 lead. It was Henderson’s only catch of the game.

“It feels good when you get the score and make the big play,” Henderson said. “That’s expected of me.”

Tampa Bay retook the lead, this time at 20-17 when the Buccaneers drove 73 yards. A  Garcia 2-yard touchdown pass to Ike Hilliard capped off the drive on third-and-goal, only the second third-down conversion of the day for Tampa.

That set up Bush’s game-changing drive, one that could send New Orleans to bigger, better things this season.

“We had our opportunities,” Tampa cornerback Ronde Barber said. “We’re a good team with good players, but it’s a game of making plays and today, they  had more than we did.”