Buccaneers vs. Saints 2013, Week 17: New Orleans gets must-win game over Tampa

Back-to-back losses heading into the final week of the season left the Saints needing a win to make the postseason. There was never much doubt against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, either.

The Saints are now awaiting the result of the Cowboys vs. Eagles game. New Orleans will be the No. 6 seed in the playoffs, and the winner of that matchup will be the No. 3 seed and the Saints’ first opponent in the postseason.

Believe it or not, coaching like you’ve got nothing left to lose has its downside. Schiano took a page out of the Jim Zorn playbook and called for the old swinging gate formation. The result was just your classic run of the mill offset line, 4th & 10 fake punt thrown underhanded and incomplete.

I’ll say this about Greg Schiano: he’s pulling out all of the stops in today’s game against the Saints. Greg looked like he was coaching for his job in the first quarter with a great flea-flicker playcall that caught Tiquan Underwood for a 48 yard touchdown. It’s all probably too little too late for Schiano, who somehow made it through the entire season without being fired despite jumping out to an early 0-8 record.

Lance Moore was first in the end zone in Saints-Bucs, catching a 44-yarder from Drew Brees. This is how he celebrated:

It’s not an original celebration: it comes from the Key and Peele skit where Hingle McCringleberry (the Penn State grad, formerly of East-West Bowl fame) scores several touchdowns and gets penalized for thrusting too much:

This team has been Jekyll and Hyde in 2013. They perform extremely well at home, but struggle away from their dome, where the team’s offense is less potent and Brees performance suffers. The Saints are lucky they get to close out the 2013 regular season at home where they’re near-unbeatable, but questions linger when they enter the playoffs.

Much of the reason for the late push has been quarterback Mike Glennon. The third-round rookie has been the best player in the 2013 class and has a chance to be the team’s long-term answer, provided he starts being more reliable and stops being gun-shy. A win over New Orleans at home would cement him as the team’s starting quarterback, but that’s a big task.

The over/under for the matchup is 47 points. The Saints are 5-10 with the over/under this season, while the Buccaneers are 7-8 when it comes to matching total points. New Orleans is averaging 24.8 points per game, while the defense is allowing 19.1 points to opposing teams. Tampa Bay is averaging 18 points per game, while 23.1 points are being allowed on defense.

The Buccaneers are 6-9 against the spread, while the Saints are 7-7-1 on the season in the same category. However, New Orleans is 1-4-1 in the last six games against the spread.