The New Orleans Saints improved to 11-2 on the year and won their second NFC South championship in two years, creating quite the highlight reel along the way. Let’s run through them.
As always, the pregame warmups were capped off with quarterback Drew Brees hyping up his teammates in a huddle:
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But things didn’t start how the Saints wanted. Tampa Bay drove down the field at will in the first half, scoring on their first possession with a dart to tight end Cameron Brate:
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Brees was rattled by a Buccaneers defense that came to play all the way up to halftime, with a midfield screen pass getting intercepted by a reserve defensive back:
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Tampa Bay capitalized on that opportunity, running down to the Saints’ goal-line so that quarterback Jameis Winston found Brate again in the end zone:
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But as it turned out, that was the last positive the Buccaneers would experience on Sundy. The Saints forced a punt in the third quarter, and reserve quarterback Taysom Hill lit a fire to warm up the whole team by blocking it:
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It was the Saints’ turn to seize momentum, and they sprinted to do just that. Fullback Zach Line engaged in some trickery, running a route out of the backfield and hammering his way into the end zone for the first Saints touchdown of the day:
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Alvin Kamara converted the two-point conversion on a toss play, and the Saints kept the pressure up going into the fourth quarter. Relentless pass rush put the Saints in favorable position again, but this time Brees took the ball himself and leaped over the goal-line for a touchdown:
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The dagger came later. Saints running back Mark Ingram put the team on his back in the fourth quarter, gaining chunk yards on rushing downs and stepping up in pass protection, and he earned his own highlight play with a 17-yard rushing touchdown. It was an example of beautiful physicality in the sport as Buccaneers defenders were literally drug into the end zone behind him, hanging on by the threads of his jersey.
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Everything from there on out was procedural – the Saints sacked Winston a few more times, and his final desperation throw into the end zone was intercepted by star cornerback Marshon Lattimore. The first and second halves of this game could not have looked more different, and it’s due to the adjustments the Saints coaches made at halftime just as much as Hill’s huge blocked punt.