Saints Have Bragging Rights Against Buccaneers

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their league-leading defense may be dominating the rest of the NFL. They can’t dominate New Orleans.

Despite a record-setting sacks performance by Tampa Bay’s Simeon Rice, the Saints ended the Buccaneers’ four-game winning streak, 23-20, Sunday night.

Aaron Brooks, playing despite a bruised throwing arm, threw two touchdown passes in the first six minutes of the second half, while the defense shut down the Buccaneer running game.

It was the second win over Tampa Bay (9-3) by New Orleans, which beat the Buccaneers, 26-20, in overtime on the opening day of the season. And it made a three-team race of the NFC South; Tampa Bay leads Atlanta (8-3-1) by a half-game and the Saints (8-4) by one game.

“This is kind of a round-robin,” Saint Coach Jim Haslett said. “We beat Tampa twice. Atlanta beat us twice. Hopefully, Tampa will beat Atlanta next week and we’ll just pass the thing around.”

“It was great,” added Joe Horn, who caught one of Brooks’ touchdown passes. “Now we’ll just let them and Atlanta fight it out. This gets us back on track.”

Rice, the NFL’s sacks leader at 14 1/2, took only five minutes to get two sacks and set a record with five consecutive games with multiple sacks. Six minutes later, he got a third, and it resulted in a safety for a 2-0 lead.

But the Saints’ 26th-ranked defense played just as well, forcing three turnovers and holding Tampa Bay to 34 yards rushing. The Buccaneers, who came in leading the league with a plus-15 turnover differential, forced only one turnover.

“When you lose the turnover ratio on the road versus a good team, I believe it’s going to turn up biting you in the end,” Buccaneer Coach Jon Gruden said.

New Orleans forced the Buccaneers to run nearly two minutes off the clock from first-and-goal at the one before a two-yard fourth-down touchdown pass from Brad Johnson to Keenan McCardell with 2:49 left. Brad Johnson connected with Keyshawn Johnson for a two-point conversion that cut the deficit to 23-20.

But Jake Delhomme, who replaced Brooks for the final series, completed a 10-yard slant to Horn on third-and-eight from the 18 after the two-minute warning to clinch the game.

“The big thing we did is stop the run,” Saint defensive tackle Norman Hand said.

“That’s exactly what we wanted to do. If you let them have both things, you’re in trouble.”

Brooks, who bruised his biceps on the last play of the first half, completed only nine-of-25 passes for 155 yards. But with the Saints trailing, 9-6, at the half, he threw touchdown passes of three yards to Jake Reed and 14 yards to Horn on the first two possessions of the third quarter.

Saint running back Deuce McAllister had 99 yards in 27 carries to go over the 1,000 yard mark.