New Orleans Saints roll past Tampa Bay Buccaneers to earn wild card playoff berth

 

Saints' QB Drew Brees and tight end Jimmy Graham (80) celebrate Brees' nine-yard TD run in a 42-17 victory over Tampa Bay sending the Black & Gold to the playoffs.  Getty Photo.

The New Orleans Saints gave members of the Who Dat Nation a late Christmas gift following a superlative effort from Drew Brees yesterday  as the Black & Gold punched their playoff ticket taking a convincing 42-17 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. The 11-5 Saints finished the regular season a perfect 8-0 in the Dome, while struggling to a 3-5 road mark. The Saints will travel to Philadelphia, the city of Brotherly Love, Saturday to battle the Eagles, who edged the Dallas Cowboys 24-22 last night to win the NFC East title. The early weather predictions for Philly are for the temperatures to be in the mid-to-low 20's for Saturday night's wild card affair. The kickoff is set for 7:10 p.m. Brees was in playoff form posting an impressive quarterback rating of 157.4, clicking on 24-of-31 attempts for 381 yards with four touchdown passes. Brees was on target finding receivers on long-range scoring plays including 76 yards to Kenny Stills, 44 to Lance Moore and 41 yards to Robert Meachem. Brees, who averaged 12.3 yards per pass, also connected with Jimmy Graham from 10 yards out giving the tight end 16 receiving touchdowns putting him one behind the NFL mark of 17 set by New England's Ron Gronkowski. Brees also found time to rush for one score covering nine yards as he did it all sparking the victory. The Saints' o-line came up big in the clutch with Brees only being sacked once for 11 yards and he had time to look down field finding open receivers. The Saints' offense poured it on gaining 468 yards yesterday, while Rob Ryan's defense did its part limiting the Buccaneers to just 290 yards of total offense with Junior Galette posting two sacks to give him a career-high 12. Keenan Lewis, an O. Perry Walker High graduate, who
made First-Team All-Metro and all-league as a senior, picked off a Mike Glennon pass to give him a team-high of four interceptions. Glennon, a rookie, who earned the starting job when the Bucs released Josh Freeman, finished going 22-of-41 for 219 yards with two TDs and Lewis' interception.