PRO FOOTBALL : New Orleans’ Win Is Forgettable : Saints Sputter on Offense but Manage to Slip By Tampa Bay, 13-9

It was a forgettable game, so New Orleans Coach Jim Mora forgot the score.

Bobby Hebert threw a touchdown pass in the first quarter and Morten Andersen kicked 2 field goals Sunday to give the Saints a 13-9 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

“Here’s two teams that last year played (to a Saints’) 44-34 win and you come back a year later and go, what was it, 16-12?” Mora asked. “I don’t know. Oh, it was 13-9.

“We had a hard time really getting any consistency in our offense. We didn’t really establish a running game.”

New Orleans gained only 117 yards on the ground and 159 passing.

Hebert, the NFC’s leading passer, threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Lonzell Hill as the Saints (3-1) took a 7-0 lead on their first drive.

Following the kickoff, New Orleans strong safety Gene Atkins picked off Vinny Testaverde’s pass at the Saint 30 and returned the ball to the Buccaneer 31. Four plays later, Morten Andersen connected on a 28-yard field goal to make it 10-0.

Tampa Bay (1-3) finally got untracked early in the second quarter when Donald Igwebuike hit on the first of his 3 field goals, a 25-yarder, to make it 10-3.

On the ensuing kickoff, Atkins fielded the ball on the hop at the 11 and sprinted 57 yards to the 32. The drive stalled three plays later and Andersen kicked a 41-yard field goal.

Tampa Bay again moved the ball on the Saints, aided by 20 yards in New Orleans penalties. On third and 10 at the New Orleans 14, Testaverde fumbled while scrambling but recovered the loose ball for a 3-yard loss. Igwebuike kicked a 35-yard field goal to make it 13-6 at halftime.

Igwebuike provided the only points by either team in the second half with a 35-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter.

Hebert completed 16 of 28 for 159 yards with an interception. Testaverde was 14 of 33 for 230 yards and an interception.