Happy Holiday’s to everyone. Hope you all spent good family time while indulging in whatever crossed your mouth. I did, all while watching 3 games of horrible football. Who picked these games? The Cardinals and the Eagles was a good match-up that didn’t quite turn out that as thought, but who’s the genius that thought the 0-11 Lions would put up a good fight against the 10-1 Titans. That game was over before it began. As if that wasn’t bad enough, we then had to suffer through the Cowboys vs. the Seahawks. Enough said.

Anyhow, how bout them Bucs, 8 and 3 leading the division and rolling on tough. The next 3 weeks will be the test to see how tough we really are. We have 3 tough division match-ups in the Saints, Falcons, and Panthers. This week we welcome the 6-5 New Orleans Saints to Raymond James. When we played them in Week 1, we came out of the gates very lackluster and never quite recovered, leading to a 24-20 loss. This week we look to advance our 3 game winning streak to 4 vs. a tough Saints team.

We are a little banged up coming into this game. Hopefully this week we will see TE Alex Smith and SS Jermaine Phillips back in the lineup following their injuries in week 9 vs. the Cowboys. Filling in for Phillips has been 2nd year SS Sabby Piscatelli who has played very well, but to get back someo ne that hits like Phillips is a huge boost to our defense. If Phillips plays we will need him vs. a potent Saints offense.

QB Drew Brees is currently ranked as the #2 quarterback in the NFL, and rightfully so. The Saints 6-5 record might not prove it, but he is that good. It also helps when you have people like WR Marques Colston, TE Jeremy Shockey, and RB Reggie Bush to throw to. We might have dodged a bullet in Bush being injured. He has been limited in practice all week and is not 100%. Phew, because he definitely knows how to finish us off by personally scoring 2 touchdowns to end 2 games we have lost in the past 2 years to the Saints. I do think this week will be different though.

The Saints offense, however may be potent, the Buccaneer defense is top tier and playing very well as of late. The Saints will score, but we will limit their scoring while our offense runs wild vs. their defense. They cannot stop anyone nowadays, and to make matters worse, they just put their best CB on injured reserve for the rest of the season. And oh yeah, it’s a home game at Ray-Jay. That sounds like a recipe for success to me. So all you Bucs fans at the game, cheer your Bucs on to 9 and 3. Same time, same place to see how this unfolds.

Happy Holidays

Steve Fritch

SteveF@getinmagazine.com