Tampa Bay entered their matchup against the Saints looking to keep.

There was plenty of reason for optimism after a strong first half of play had the Bucs in the lead by a score of 14-3 Customized Tampa Bay Buccaneers Jerseys , but a blocked punt and no second-half offense doomed the team.Outside of a bad drop by Peyton Barber on the first play, things couldn’t have gone better for Tampa Bay on the first drive of the game. Winston came out and hit Mike Evans on a perfect deep ball for a 36-yard completion on the next play. Barber took a run up the middle of the defense for 13 yards and then Winston scrambled away from pressure and added 14 more yards on the next play. The Bucs were in business at the Saints’ 12-yard line just four plays into the game.Winston then found Cameron Brate on a beautiful back shoulder throw in the end zone on 3rd-and-9 for the game’s first points. Cairo Santos nailed the extra point and the Bucs led, 7-0.Terron Armstead’s injury reared it’s ugly head early on as a holding penalty on Jermaine Bushrod - Armstead’s replacement - put the Saints behind the sticks and they couldn’t recover. They had to punt the ball from midfield and the Bucs took over at their own 25. A defensive pass interference call prevented Tampa Bay from going three-and-out. A few plays later, wide receiver Adam Humphries too a huge hit while catching a pass over the middle for a first down on 3rd-and-7. It was a major lick from Saints’ safety Marcus Williams, one big enough to cause Humphries’ helmet to come off as he hit the ground. Hump just popped back up, hyped more than ever and ready to go. But Winston and Humphries couldn’t connect on the next third down try and the Bucs had to punt. Carl Nassib came crashing through the offensive line and took down Alvin Kamara for an eight-yard loss on second down that forced New Orleans into just their 17th three-and-out of the season. Tampa Bay was able to drive all the way down to the Saints’ 20 thanks to some big throws and a big run from Winston, but a gaffe by Donovan Smith on 3rd-and-9 led to the Saints’ first sack of the game. The eight yard loss put Cairo Santos in position to attempt a 46-yard field goal. The kick looked like it was going to sail through the uprights until it curved at the last second and bounced off the right upright. Brees and the Saints started at their own 36 after the miss and Brees immediately came out and found Thomas for a 17-yard pass that put them in Tampa Bay territory. Another big reception by Thomas on 3rd-and-4 put the Saints in the red zone, but Tampa Bay’s defense held them to a 30-yard field goal and Will Lutz knocked it through. Tampa Bay’s lead was now 7-3. The Bucs ran into a bit of luck after Chris Godwin fumbled his first reception of the day, only to have Brate fall on top of it. Multiple, idiotic penalties by several players on offense over the course of the next few plays saw the Bucs punt the ball back into the waiting arms of the Saints.Now, the visiting team had a chance to score before halftime and would receive the ball after the half. This would be a big drive for the Tampa Bay defense. The Bucs tried to challenge a questionable no-call on a Kamara fumble, but there wasn’t enough evidence to overturn the down-by-contact call on the field. As it turns out, Tampa Bay didn’t need that call to go their way, after all. Adarius Taylor read a Saints’ screen perfectly and stepped in front of throw to make the interception. He was able to rumble down the field for seven yards to the New Orleans 39-yard line. The defense did its part www.authenticstampabaybuccaneers.com , now it was the offense’s turn.An illegal hit on a defenseless receiver call opened up the drive and Tampa Bay was able to take advantage, but it was Winston who made the play of the game up until this point. He made multiple defenders miss on an exciting scramble and was able to find an open Humphries just before he crossed the line of scrimmage. Humphries was able to take the ball all the way inside the Saints’ one-yard line, stopping just short of the goal line. Winston found Brate for the second time of the first half in the back of the end zone off a play fake and the Bucs extended their lead to 14-3.The touchdown didn’t come without a price, however, as Demar Dotson landed on Winston’s plant leg. The quarterback looked to be in some major pain and went into the locker room early. The Bucs went 5/8 on third down in the first half, compared to 2/5 from the Saints. The most impressive stat was Tampa Bay’s run defense. They allowed just three yards on the ground through the first two quarters. The defense picked right up where it left off in the first half. Nassib came flying off the edge on second down and was able to knock the ball out of Brees’ hands. Jason Pierre-Paul was able to recover the ball and complete the strip-sack play. But the Saints held strong on defense and forced another field goal attempt. This time, it was from 40-yards out and this one had no chance. Santos and the Bucs watched it sail wide left and the Saints were spared three points. Fortunately, Tampa Bay has Vinny Curry on their side. He was able to crash through theB-gap and take Ingram down behind the line of scrimmage on 3rd-and-1. It was the second three-and-out for the defense and the Saints had to punt. More outstanding scrambling from Winston and a big catch by Evans helped Tampa Bay move the ball, but a big Godwin drop left the Bucs in punting position. New Orleans’ special teams came up with the biggest play of the day and blocked the Bucs’ punt. The Saints were in business as they took over at the Tampa Bay 30.Mark Ingram rumbled down to the Bucs’ 11 for 19 yards and a few players later, Brees found a wide open Zach Line for the Saint’s first touchdown of the game. Alvin Kamara then ran in the two-point conversion on a quick toss to the left to cut Tampa Bay’s lead to three points, 14-11. The second half struggles continued for the offense on the next drive. Winston was sacked twice and the end result was a three-and-out. How ironic is it that at this point, it was the defense that needed to bail this team out?Brees came out and hit Johnny Lee-Lewis for a 20-yard completion right off the bat. The Saints quarterback was then able to wait out the pressure and find Kamara for a first down on a 3rd-and-2. The Bucs’ defense was able to force the Saints’ offense into a 4th-and-goal from inside the one-yard line, but Brees leapt over the entire defensive line and was able to get the ball over the goal line. The extra point was good and the Saints now led, 18-11.Tampa Bay couldn’t do anything with the ball on their next drive and the Saints took over. A big reception on third down by Michael Thomas sparked the rest of the drive that ended with an Ingram touchdown to run. It was the dagger the Saints needed and they now led 25-14 with about seven and a half minutes to play. Both teams exchanged possessions until the Saints drove down and hit a late field goal to make it a 28-14 final. Tampa Bay is now (5-8) on the season. They will travel to Baltimore next weekend. Kickoff is set for 1PM EST.Hard Count Episode 18-5: Eagles Fans Tampa Bay Buccaneers T-Shirt , the National Anthem, and NFL Rule Changes There was plenty of action to be seen as the NFL collectively took to the field for the first batch of regular season games in the 2018 season.As always, I’ve taken a few topics from around the league which peaked my personal interest and put my thoughts down here for all to see and discuss as you feel.This week, I’ll be giving my opinions on the Eagles fan base, National Anthem decisions and the what I see as the worst NFL rule change for the 2018 season. Let’s go!OFFSIDES: Eagles fans boo the champsWhen a team wins the Super Bowl, you figure it gives the head coach about a two-three year window of employment barring catastrophic melt-downs or legal trouble.One could also assume the fan base would be able to feed off the bragging rights from such a historic event for at least the following season, if not longer were the team to challenge for more post-season glory.Well, in Philadelphia, it seems the franchise’s first ever Lombardi Trophy bought their team and players approximately one half of happiness.Somehow, just thirty minutes into the regular season while facing a playoff contender on opening night, Eagles fans went from eating horse feces to hurling feces of the mouth at their championship patch wearing athletic club.Interesting.I know a few Eagles fans, and I’m proud to say none of them were the booing type, so obviously this isn’t an indictment on all of them. However, it only takes one - or in this case a large crowd of them - to ruin it all for the rest of you.Maybe fans in Philadelphia aren’t aware Tampa Bay Buccaneers Hats , but winning a Super Bowl is hard. Repeating is even harder. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers haven’t won even a single playoff game since the team so memorably dominated the Raiders in their only title win thus far.Word of advice to Eagles fans. Enjoy the win. Enjoy the fact that until at least early next year there is no title as new and shiny as yours. If you’re as unlucky as the Bucs and their fans have been, you’re going to wish you enjoyed these post-glory days if and when the causes for real booing happens.Ever wonder why players don’t care about the fans more?Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY SportsFALSE START: NFL’s policy - or lack thereof - on the National AnthemThis off-season the league drew a hard line in the sand with their policy about protests during the National Anthem. Stand, hide, or be fined. Well, not surprisingly, about half of the NFL watching public had a problem with it. The other half (approximately) liked it. There was a smaller percentage which simply wanted to watch football and couldn’t care less. I don’t have hard numbers, but my best guess is there’s about a 40-40-20 split among fans who support, deplore, and just don’t care about the protests.But the NFL made a decision. As unpopular with some as it may have been, they made it. Aaaand, they somewhat quietly decided to retract it just as quickly as the hand-raised vote which first enacted it happened.Let me sum up the article linked to the tweet Adam Schefter sent out about the reported withdrawal of policy.Essentially, their decision made a lot of people angry and so they’ve decided to do nothing until they can come up with something which may or may not make everyone happy.Herein lies the problem for the league. If the split is truly 40-40 among fans who support and don’t support the protests, no single policy is going to make everyone happy.However, pulling back on this policy is only going to make the real policy - if there is one - a little harder on the public relations staff when the time comes to unveil it.My gut says the NFL is hoping this whole thing will go away and they can just move on to other business having never taken a stand themselves one way or another. According to the ESPN article attached to Schefter’s tweet Tampa Bay Buccaneers Hoodie , two players knelt during the pre-season and one sat. If this is the case, then it may be only Nike who is continuing to press the issue at this point, and a resolution of doing nothing may be the course the league chooses to take.Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty ImagesFREE PLAY: Play through the whistle, unless you’re going to land on the quarterbackThis may be dubbed the off-season of rule changes by generations in the future. New rules or clarifications of rules governing catches, fumbles, slides, kickoffs, helmet contact and quarterback hits have all been implemented. Like many fans, I have a little bit of guilty pleasure when a crap rule is called in favor of my team. So when the Saints were flagged for a defensive player landing on Ryan Fitzpatrick in a legal attempt to sack him, I was happy.Part of me was sad though too. Not because of that specific play, but because of the rule change it brought up.A couple have gotten some bad press, but the biggest bad-rule change is the one which deserves the ire of football fans and players everywhere is the one where a defender attempting to sack a quarterback is not allowed to lay his body weight on said quarterback.Now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t feel like there’s any place for a defender driving a quarterback into the ground, or a defender not involved in the sack jumping on the quarterback for a little extra ‘oomph’. But Youth Customized Tampa Bay Buccaneers Jerseys , I also don’t believe it’s reasonable to expect a 300-plus pound man to matrix his body weight and direction of travel mid-tackle so the quarterback doesn’t get extra boo-boos.Richard Sherman commented earlier this off-season about the rule change regarding the leading of the helmet as problematic because it asks players to do something humanly impossible.Not true. Many players have successfully altered their tackling patterns to comply with said rule.Players will have to adjust to this rule as well, but tell a defensive player he can no longer wrap-up and drive through the likes of Cam Newton, and you’re going to end up with more flags or bigger runs for the Panthers’ quarterback.Not every sack leads to a defender landing on his target of course, but if the intent is to sack the quarterback and the player happens to land on him in the process, so be it.If the defender drives the quarterback into the ground, flag him. If a third player jumps on the quarterback on the way down, flag him twice. If the defender has upright control and chooses to fall directly on the quarterback, tack on 15, by all means.And don’t get me wrong, David Onyemata definitely turned his shoulders downward while taking down Fitzpatrick.But if a guy is simply playing to the whistle and his frame falls on the frame of another NFL player due to pure direction of travel and physics, that’s called football.Intent is important here and should be taken into consideration by the competition committee.