Bucs Nation
The Buccaneers are 6-2 thanks to a fantastic defensive effort in New Orleans as they beat the Saints 23-3. The offense never really got going, but four takeaways by the defense including a defensive score (even if it should’ve been two) would do the trick before the bye week.
Let’s see what social media had to say about the convincing win.
Bucs linebacker Anthony Nelson had easily the best day of his career on Sunday and was all over the place with two sacks, a forced fumble and an incredible pick six where he tipped the pass to himself and took it in for the score.
It was nice to see Nelson have such a good day. He has played a smaller role on the Bucs defense so far this season, but with Haason Reddick being hurt he figures to play a bigger factor for Tampa Bay as Reddick heals up.
I’m usually not one to heavily criticize officials often. I just have learned to accept that referees in sports will always be bad and leave a lot to be desired but this is getting embarrassing for the NFL. I’m not sure I have seen this much bad officiating in a season since I’ve started watching football. Not just with the Bucs games, but with almost every game. It seems like there are issues with bad calls every single game nowadays and Sunday was the latest example.
Tampa Bay forced a fumble and Antoine Winfield Jr picked it up and ran it in for a touchdown… or so we thought. After looking at it, the officials ruled that it was a fumble recovered by the Bucs but there was a whistle that blew the play dead and thus had Winfield down at the spot of the fumble. There is just one issue with that though… there was no whistle like, at all.
This took a touchdown off the board for Tampa Bay and just a few plays later, the Saints would force a turnover and end up kicking a field goal before the half. Ultimately the play didn’t end up mattering in the end result of the game, but this is still unacceptable. That swing could have very well changed the entire game and it is because of the officials not being able to recognize that there was no whistle. No player stopped running during the play! The officials themselves were running with Winfield down the sideline! How can there suddenly be a whistle?
The league needs to take a long hard look at the officiating because it is becoming a bigger problem each week.
Tampa Bay’s defense has really started to come around as of late. They have 10 takeaways in their last four games and while that pace likely is not sustainable, it is nice to see them making splash plays and even putting the ball in the endzone themselves.
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