Saints Report: Big Brawl in the Big Easy as Saints face Bucs

After four straight regular season wins over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the New Orleans Saints were in a prime position to make it five straight in week two after shutting out their NFC South rival in the first half for the second game in a row.

But here’s where it all went wrong, Mark Ingram was one of the bright spots in this game, but his only mistake was a big one, a fumble inside the ten-yard line, giving the ball back to the Bucs.

The moment everyone is talking about is when Marshon Lattimore got into it with Tom Brady and Leonard Fournette, Mike Evans comes out of nowhere, both Lattimore and Evans ejected from the game.

But what team would seize the momentum? The answer would be Tampa Bay, scoring 17 straight points after the fight, thanks in large part to three Jameis Winston interceptions in the fourth quarter.

News 25’s Jeff Haeger was on-hand for all the madness at the Superdome where everyone was still talking about that cheap shot well after the final whistle.

All week long, the Buccaneers had to hear about not beating the Saints in the four games since Tom Brady’s arrival in Tampa Bay, well, now they have beaten the Saints, but it felt more like a playoff game with emotions boiling over early in the fourth quarter after Mike Evans took a blindside cheap shot at Marshon Lattimore after some chirping with Tom Brady after which the Saints committed four out of their five turnovers and gave up 17 straight points to the Bucs. Running back Mark Ingram said, “I mean as a man, if somebody comes and just cheap shots you, nobody respects that. If you’re going to do something, do it when guys are face up looking. But I mean as a man, as a player, I mean you’ve got to be able to defend yourself in some form or fashion, especially when somebody is blatant, physical and just disrespectful in that manner.”

Safety Tyrann Mathieu said, “I thought we played really well, obviously. In every game you want a few plays back. But any time you’re playing against a quarterback like that, you’ve got to put him away early. If you don’t, he’ll find a way to make one of those kinds of plays.”

Defensive End Cameron Jordan said, “He was exactly who we thought he was. He gets the ball out fast. He doesn’t allow you to hit him. He doesn’t allow you to actually rush the passer. You have to eliminate the game elsewhere. So, we talked about eliminating the run this week was the emphasis, was the focus, and you tell me what their average was per carry. I know it wasn’t over 2.5.”

Quarterback Jameis Winston said, “I don’t like to lose, so the biggest thing, I hate losing, especially to that group. But man, they’re competitors. They compete, too. And I just hate to let the team down by turning over the football and not giving us a chance to win. Whoever wins the turnover battle is going to win. I heard coach said it. Win the turnover battle, we win this game.”

Head Coach Dennis Allen said, “Look, it’s been the story of this game between these two teams the last six times this game has been played. The team turns the ball over – or the team that takes the ball away is the team that wins, and we were on the other end of that. There’s some good things that happened in the game, but yet everything gets overshadowed by not taking care of the football.”

Quite the contrast in fourth quarters for quarterback Jameis Winston, who just last week threw for over 200 yards and two touchdowns on the road in Atlanta en route to a 16-point comeback over the Falcons.

Compare that to week two against Tampa Bay where he threw three picks in the fourth quarter alone, leaving the Saints with a lot of questions on offense to figure out heading into week three.

Next up for the Saints is another noon kickoff coming this Sunday on the road against the Carolina Panthers.