After snapping their three-game losing streak with a 20-17 win over the Cardinals in Week 13, the 7-5 Bucs continue their home stand this Sunday as they welcome in the 2-10 New Orleans Saints to Raymond James Stadium.

The win over Arizona was a step in the right direction for Tampa Bay, but Sunday’s game — the first of three straight games against NFC South foes — is an opportunity for a true get-right performance by Todd Bowles’ team. This is a bad Saints team, and the Bucs could really use a comfortable win in which everything finally clicks on both sides of the ball — and on special teams.

With the Panthers on their bye week, a win for the Bucs over the Saints would extend Tampa Bay’s lead atop the division to a full game and keep things on track toward a fifth straight division title and a sixth consecutive playoff appearance. The simplest clinching scenario over the next few weeks is for the Bucs to beat the Saints, Falcons and Panthers back-to-back-to-back, so Sunday’s contest is a big one despite the record that Kellen Moore’s team comes in with. Tampa Bay is also going for a third season sweep of New Orleans in four seasons under Bowles.

Bucs RT Luke Goedeke – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

This has been the Bucs’ time of the year in recent seasons, too, so they’ll be looking to keep that going as they play their first game of December this Sunday. Last week’s win improved them to 11-2 in Weeks 13-18 in the Baker Mayfield era, and getting that record to 12-2 — and improving to 8-5 on the 2025 season — would be huge, especially with a short week ahead before a Week 15 Thursday Night Football game against the Falcons.

Before we dive further in our “What to Watch For” preview later this week, here’s a general preview of Sunday afternoon’s matchup between division rivals at Ray Jay:

The Last Time…

Until their Week 13 win over the Cardinals, the Bucs’ most recent win had actually come in their first meeting with the Saints earlier this year. That was back on Oct. 26, when Tampa Bay went into the Superdome and came out with a dominant 23-3 victory to get to 6-2 on the year just ahead of the bye week.

The Buccaneer defense starred in that victory over the Saints, with Anthony Nelson putting together an NFC Defensive Player of the Week performance that included a pick-six to get the scoring started. Nelson also had two sacks and a forced fumble in the game, and Antoine Winfield Jr. had an interception and a fumble recovery while wrongfully having two touchdowns taken off the board as well. So, the final score could have and should have been a lot worse than 23-3 despite a pretty average day from the Bucs offense.

Bucs OLB Anthony Nelson and Saints QB Spencer Rattler – Photo by: USA Today

In total, the Tampa Bay defense forced four turnovers and racked up five sacks in the victory. New Orleans went through two quarterbacks, with Spencer Rattler going 15-of-21 for 136 yards, an interception and a lost fumble before Tyler Shough came on in relief to go 17-of-30 for 128 yards and an interception.

Chase McLaughlin booted three field goals in the win, and the only other Buccaneer touchdown came courtesy of Sean Tucker from 1 yard out.

All-time, the Saints hold a 40-28 advantage over the Bucs. However, things have trended in Tampa Bay’s favor as of late with a sweep in 2022, a split in 2023, a sweep in 2024 and a win back in October. Overall, the Bucs are 6-1 against the Saints under Todd Bowles and will be looking for a third sweep in his four-year tenure thus far.

How The Bucs And Saints Are Trending

Things are looking a little brighter for the Bucs heading into Week 14, and not just because they snapped their three-game losing streak with last week’s win over the Cardinals and are set to face a two-win Saints team this week. There’s also the fact that Tampa Bay was healthier in Week 13 than it has been in weeks, and there is some more help on the way in the coming weeks. Last Sunday saw the returns of Bucky Irving, Ben Bredeson, Haason Reddick and Jamel Dean, plus Chris Godwin Jr. looked more like himself than he has at any point this season.

Add in the fact that the Bucs opened the 21-day practice windows for both Mike Evans and Jalen McMillan this week and the offense is set to get even healthier later in the season’s stretch run, perhaps in Week 15 or that crucial Week 16 game against the Panthers in Charlotte. Calijah Kancey is reportedly way ahead of schedule as well, with Todd Bowles saying he, along with the two receivers on injured reserve, should be back before the year is over.

With that all said, Tampa Bay is still in somewhat of a funk. Yes, the losing streak ended last Sunday and while the Cardinals play everyone close with seven of their nine losses by four points or fewer, there were plenty of missed opportunities for Bowles’ team in that game. On offense, Baker Mayfield missed on a couple of throws, though drops from Godwin and Emeka Egbuka were more glaring missed opportunities for the offense. A couple of penalties (one legitimate, one ridiculous) also took points off the board at different times.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield and RB Bucky Irving – Photo by: USA Today

But there was a lot of good in what offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard dialed up last week. The execution just needs to be better. With a sharper passing game, fewer penalties and a continued spark from Irving down the stretch, the Bucs could get really hot and start putting up some points. As Pewter Report’s Josh Queipo opined this week, this offense is close. There are just some areas that need to be cleaned up.

More of the same can be said about the Buccaneers defense, as it did create two takeaways last week and held Arizona under its season scoring average. The unit also racked up two sacks, but there were four or five that were left out there. Bowles needs his pass rushers to finish those plays and complete those sacks, for one. And secondly, this group badly needs to shore up its tackling at the second and third levels. That was a major problem against the Cardinals, and it’s not something that can linger if this team wants to put it all together in the final five weeks of the season.

The defense’s numbers have plummeted since the bye week, with Tampa Bay now 23rd in scoring defense, 22nd in total defense and 29th in pass defense. But the Bucs are still elite at stopping the run, ranking sixth in the NFL. The defense needs a better Zyon McCollum down the stretch, and Jamel Dean has to stay healthy.

As for the Saints, they’ve been playing more for draft positioning than playoff positioning for well over a month now. Kellen Moore‘s team is 2-10 with six losses in its last seven games. Since the Bucs last saw them in Week 8, they did score an upset 17-7 road win over the Panthers in Week 10. But since that game, they had their bye week and lost 24-10 to the Falcons at home and dropped a close 21-17 decision last week against the Dolphins in Miami.

Saints HC Kellen Moore – Photo by: USA Today

New Orleans is currently slated to pick third overall in the 2026 Draft, and considering the age and overall shape its roster is in, a season like this to land a top-five pick may ultimately be a necessary step for the franchise. The post-Drew Brees years have been a disaster, with the Saints in a lot of cap trouble with an aging and incomplete roster. This is a team that hasn’t made the playoffs since Tampa Bay retired Brees in January of 2021, going 9-8, 7-10, 9-8 and 5-12 since. The bottom has fallen out this year after Derek Carr’s retirement as they’re on pace for their worst season since a 3-13 2005 campaign.

Offensively, there’s not much there for Moore to work with. Spencer Rattler started the season as New Orleans’ quarterback, but since getting benched in the second half of the loss to Tampa Bay in Week 8, he hasn’t come back in. Instead, it’s been 2025 second-round pick Tyler Shough under center, and thus far, he has completed 65.2% of his passes for 1,068 yards and five touchdowns to four interceptions. He has also been sacked 14 times in six games. Shough may never be “the guy” for the Saints, but it’s hard to say he’s been given much of a chance given the talent on the offensive side of the ball this year.

Alvin Kamara isn’t the player he used to be, as he has 471 yards and just one touchdown on 131 carries this year, which averages out to 3.6 yards per carry. Chris Olave has stayed healthy this year and leads the Saints with 73 catches for 781 yards (10.7 avg.) and five touchdowns, but outside of tight end Juwan Johnson (54 catches, 576 yards, 10.7 avg., three touchdowns), there aren’t really any proven options. The team traded Rashid Shaheed to the Seahawks at the deadline, making matters worse for the time being.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield and Saints DE Chase Young and MLB Demario Davis – Photo by: USA Today

On defense, the Saints remain pretty talented and feisty, but this is still a unit that’s pretty old. Demario Davis is still putting up numbers at 36 years old, leading the team with 111 tackles (53 solo), five tackles for loss, two passes defensed, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery. And while he’s not the same guy he used to be, fellow 36-year-old Cameron Jordan still leads the New Orleans defense with 6.5 sacks. There are some solid players in the secondary like Alontae Taylor, Kool-Aid McKinstry, Justin Reid and Jonas Sanker, which has played a part in this group ranking seventh in the league against the pass.

The Saints have been pretty bad against the run, ranking 21st, but overall, the defense hasn’t often been the culprit in their 10 losses. This is a squad that has lost games in which it has scored 13, 13, 14, 3, 10, and 10 points and has only surpassed the 20-point mark twice this season. The defense has managed to keep them in several games, but it’s not a dominant enough defense to will them to wins.

Here’s how the Bucs and Saints stack up heading into Week 14:

Bucs Offense: T-16th in scoring offense (23.3 PPG), 21st in total offense (316.2 yards per game), 19th in passing offense (206.3 yards per game), 21st in rushing offense (109.8 yards per game)

Saints Offense: 30th in scoring offense (15.2 PPG), 26th in total offense (296.6 yards per game), 20th in passing offense (205.9 yards per game), 29th in rushing offense (90.7 yards per game)

Bucs Defense: 23rd in scoring defense (25.1 points allowed per game), 22nd in total defense (344.9 yards allowed per game), 29th in passing defense (247.5 yards allowed per game), 6th in rushing defense (97.4 yards allowed per game)

Saints Defense: 22nd in scoring defense (24.6 points allowed per game), 12th in total defense (314.6 yards allowed per game), 7th in passing defense (187.7 yards allowed per game), 21st in rushing defense (126.9 yards allowed per game)

As of Wednesday night, the Bucs are 8-point favorites, with the Over/Under set at 42.5 (per Hard Rock Bet).

Bucs vs. Saints Game Information

When: Sunday, December 7
Where: Raymond James Stadium (Tampa, FL)
Kickoff: 1:00 p.m. ET
TV: CBS – Kevin Harlan (Play by Play), Trent Green (Analyst), Melanie Collins (Reporter)
Bucs Radio: 98Rock – Gene Deckerhoff (Play by Play), Dave Moore (Color), T.J. Rives (Reporter)
Spanish Radio: 96.1 Caliente – Martín Gramática, Santiago Gramática