Saints vs Buccaneers outlook
By: Jake Rajala
The New Orleans Saints can afford to take more risks than most teams, as they sit at 1-6. Meanwhile, the Buccaneers (5-2) are playing to win the NFC South for the fifth straight season. With that said, I’m going to lay out the keys to the game.
Vita Vea vs Luke Fortner
Erik McCoy is arguably a To-3 center, and the Saints will be playing without him. It will be key for the Saints to slow down the behemoth DT Vita Vea, who has 19 pressures on the season. He’s the second coming of Vince Wilfork. He can eat up double teams quite well. Vea is going to try to bully Luke Fortner during the entire duration of the game. The way to beat the young Rattler is to not give up any yards on first and second down, which will force Rattler to throw silly deep throws. He threw 3 ints last week.
Kool-Aid McKinstry vs Emeka Egbuka
It felt like yesterday that the second year CB Kool-Aid got the game ball for his heroics against the GMEN. Against the Bucs, Kool-Aid will face a lot of Emeka Egbuka (who is a bit banged up) with Mike Evans unable to play from an injury. We’ve seen Emeka already make a strong case for OROY, as he’s unleashed 527 yards and five TDs. Perhaps he can gain some traction and separate himself from other offensive rookies after this weekend.
Deep throws
Rattler reminds a lot of people of Baker Mayfield. They both have arm talent that is off the charts. They also tend to “let it fly” and throw a 50/50 ball deep down the field. They are gunslingers. Rattler should understand that it took Baker many years to shine in this league. That can make comfort Rattler knowing that he doesn’t have to play lights out in his second or even third season.
Alvin Kamara
Alvin Kamara hasn’t taken over a game this season. He isn’t the same RB that he was a few years ago, where defenders would bounce off him. At 1-6, the Saints need their best players, also known as Kamara, to shine. After pushing it deep down the field too much last week, they need to throw more screens, and give more half-back draws for Kamara to get into 2nd and 5 or 3rd and 3.
It will be nothing short of a bloodbath between the Saints and Bucs. We won’t have the Marshon Lattimore-Mike Evans feud, but there will still be 52 players angry at one another. It’s wise to throw away one another’s record, due to their extra energy and risks that will be made by each team. The Saints also have a slight advantage because it’s played in the Saints dome. The crowd of eccentrics will be rocking.
Leave a Reply