After the Falcons lost their game in London early Sunday, the Bucs and Saints squared off at the Superdome with sole possession of the NFC South on the line. And ahead of its bye week, Tampa Bay took that top spot by keeping New Orleans at arm’s length the whole way en route to a stifling 26-9 road victory.

The Saints got the game’s first points, driving right down the field on their opening drive thanks to some chunk gains by Rasheed Shaheed. But a Yaya Diaby tackle for loss on Alvin Kamara helped stop the bleeding and forced the hosts to settle for a Blake Grupe 37-yard field goal.

Tampa Bay’s offense got things going on its first drive with an 18-yard connection between Baker Mayfield and Mike Evans, but a questionable intentional grounding call later stopped the offense in its tracks. The rest of the first quarter saw the two teams punt the ball back and forth, though the Saints dominated time of possession in holding the ball for 10:10 to the Bucs’ 4:50.

Bucs WR Mike Evans and Saints CB Marshon Lattimore – Photo by: USA Today

Baker Mayfield and the offense then erased that time of possession gap early in the second quarter with the game’s longest drive. Chris Godwin moved the chains first, then Deven Thompkins picked up 11 yards on the ground. Evans later beat Marshon Lattimore for 18 more yards to enter New Orleans territory.

From there, the Bucs converted four third downs to find the end zone first. Mayfield scrambled for seven yards on a 3rd & 7, Evans drew a defensive pass interference call on Lattimore on another 3rd & 7 and then Rachaad White made some nice moves to pick up 11 yards on a 3rd-&-8 catch.

A few plays later, Mayfield made a heads-up play to find Cade Otton for a four-yard touchdown to finish off a 17-play, 87-yard drive that took 8:51.

Tampa Bay’s defense responded well to the offense finding some life, too. That unit got off the field on third down for a quick stop thanks to an Antoine Winfield Jr. sack. That set one of the game’s biggest sequences into motion. The Bucs got working in their two-minute drill, with White running for 11 yards before Evans, Trey Palmer and White combined to get another first down. Thompkins then came through with a 26-yard catch-and-run to set the offense up with a first down deep into Saints territory.

But Mayfield then made his first big mistake of the day, failing to get enough on a pass intended for Godwin. Isaac Yiadom picked off the pass, but was ruled to be down at the New Orleans 1-yard line. That turned out to be a massive break for the Bucs, as the first play of the ensuing Saints possession saw Winfield force an Adam Prentice fumble that the Buccaneer safety recovered at the 6.

Bucs S Antoine Winfield Jr. – Photo by: USA Today

Two plays after the turnover forced by Winfield, the Bucs extended their lead with a 1-yard touchdown pass from Mayfield to Palmer. At the break, the visitors held a 14-3 lead and had outgained New Orleans 206-98.

The Bucs failed to extend their lead to start the second half, but the Saints didn’t take advantage. Winfield stood out as the main reason why, as he dropped Kamara for a loss of six yards before breaking up a Carr deep ball on 3rd & 16 to end the drive.

Tampa Bay then squandered another chance to extend its 14-3 lead. New Orleans took advantage, putting together its first sustained drive of the day thanks in large part to Kamara. But in the end, the Bucs did get a third-down stop to force another Grupe field goal. Even still, it was a one-score game at 14-6 with 49 seconds to go in the third quarter after a 12-play, 57-yard drive that took 7:09 off the clock.

The Bucs did well to respond from there, as a 32-yard catch by Godwin got the game to the fourth quarter. Some poorly timed penalties slowed the drive down, but Mayfield’s mobility proved important when he ran for seven yards on 3rd & 10 to set up a more manageable field goal. Chase McLaughlin came on to pay it off, nailing a 51-yard field goal to make it a two-possession game again at 17-6 with 13:31 to go.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: USA Today

The Saints worked their way back within eight on the next possession, but they took five more minutes off the clock before settling for that field goal.

And then the Bucs put the game away. Their next drive featured a third-down conversion from Mayfield to Thompkins and a 12-yard catch by Godwin before Godwin then broke free for a 42-yard gain to the Saints’ 5-yard line. A few plays later, Thompkins made an incredible diving touchdown catch to extend the Tampa Bay lead to 23-9.

A fumble forced by Vita Vea and recovered by Logan Hall then sealed the deal on New Orleans’ next possession. The Bucs turned that into a 28-yard field goal by McLaughlin that made it a 26-9 game with 2:24 to go.

Baker Mayfield completed 25 of his 32 passes in the win, totaling 246 yards and three touchdowns while running for 31 yards on eight carries. Chris Godwin made up for the first-half injury to Mike Evans, catching eight passes for 114 yards. The touchdowns went to Cade Otton, Trey Palmer and Deven Thompkins, while Rachaad White bounced back with a 56 yards rushing and 22 yards receiving.

Defensively, it was the Antoine Winfield Jr. show. He had a sack, two tackles for loss, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. Vita Vea was credited with two sacks and a forced fumble, too, as the Buccaneer defense held the Saints to nine points and just 197 total yards.

With the win, Tampa Bay improved to 3-1 on the season and is now 3-0 against New Orleans under Todd Bowles. The Bucs will now head into their bye week as the leaders in the NFC South before returning to Raymond James Stadium on Oct. 15 to host the Lions for their creamsicle game.