Hey, when he’s right, he’s right. In this case you’ve got to hand it to him. Tampa Bay Buccaneers right tackle Tristan Wirfs shared a message from his team’s head coach Todd Bowles on Wednesday in speaking with local media ahead of their game with the New Orleans Saints. These games have become really intense in recent years with Tom Brady arriving in the NFC South and the Saints refusing to make it easy for him.
They’ve almost taken on the air of a rivalry. But as Wirfs relayed from a team meeting, “Coach Bowles said today it’s not a rivalry unless, you know, there’s some give and take.” New Orleans has won six of their last seven games with the Buccaneers, sweeping them in regular season meetings in 2021, 2020, and 2019.
Wirfs acknowledged that his squad hasn’t played its best against New Orleans, telling the Tampa Bay Times’ Rick Stroud that there’s been too many self-inflicted wounds: “One game it could be shooting ourselves in the foot with penalties, or next game, we get the penalties under control and then we give the ball to them and we’re turning it over.” He emphasized that the team needs to refine its fundamentals, technique, and take the field with a good attitude and play with good effort.
Still, it’ll take more than better execution to level out the 39-21 all-time record the Saints have achieved against Tampa Bay. They’ve defeated the Buccaneers more than any other team besides their Week 1 opponent (the Atlanta Falcons, their real rivals, who have put together a nice and tidy 53-53 record against New Orleans in their long-running feud). If the Buccaneers would begin to sweep the Saints every year, it would take Tampa Bay nine years to even the scales, and another win after that to tip them back in their favor. Wirfs, drafted two years ago, would be 33 years old.
So, yeah, Bowles is right: this isn’t a rivalry. Buccaneers fans are so starving for relevance that they’re trying to force the issue, but in this case they need to listen to their head coach and all-star lineman. Until their team starts to win some games against the Saints, they’ll continue to be an afterthought for fans in New Orleans.
