Sunday was not exactly a banner day for the NFC South. Every team but the Buccaneers wound up losing their respective matchups.
Here’s a review of what happened around the division this week.
Saints (10-3) lost to Eagles (4-8-1), 24-21
Taysom Hill finally turned back into a pumpkin against Philadelphia, taking five sacks and throwing an interception. Far more concerning for New Orleans was their run defense, which had a 56-game streak going of not allowing a 100-yard rusher coming in. Both Miles Sanders and Jalen Hurts wound up going over the century mark as Philly racked up an insane 246 rushing yards and two touchdowns while averaging 6.8 yards per carry.
MILES SANDERS 82-YARD TD RUN 🚨
Eagles lead the Saints 17-0
(via @NFL)pic.twitter.com/SnB5PlwsHq
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 13, 2020
Next, New Orleans will try to get back on track against the Chiefs.
Buccaneers (8-5) beat Vikings (6-7), 26-14
Tom Brady is always going to get the headlines whether he deserves them or not. Tampa’s pass rush should get the credit for this victory, though. The Bucs were all over Kirk Cousins, collecting six sacks and 12 quarterback hits. Ndamukong Suh and Shaq Barrett led the way with three each.
‼️ SACK: #GoBucs' Shaquil Barrett sacks #Skol's Kirk Cousins for the 8-yard loss. It was Barrett's 7th sack of the 2020 season. With the sack, Barrett tied Broderick Thomas (26.5 from 1989-93) for the 10th-most sacks in franchise history. pic.twitter.com/LBXk63mmNK
— 𝙼𝚊𝚛𝚒 (𝙲𝚑𝚛𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚖𝚊𝚜) 𝙵𝚊𝚒𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚘 🎄 (@faiello_mari) December 13, 2020
The Bucs visit the Falcons next week.
Falcons (4-9) lost to Chargers (4-9), 20-17
Speaking of Atlanta, it doesn’t get much more embarrassing than losing a close game to the Chargers. That’s what the Falcons did on Sunday though despite Justin Herbert averaging just 5.5 yards per pass attempt. With Julio Jones out of the lineup, Matt Ryan wound up throwing three interceptions.
Matt Ryan throws a pick 🤭🤭🤭
pic.twitter.com/OO4ztFONMO— Christopher Reiss (@ReissReport) December 13, 2020
Atlanta’s run game was also pretty pathetic, as they averaged just 3.5 yards per carry.
Panthers (4-9) lost to Broncos (5-8), 32-27
Teddy Bridgewater still hasn’t led a game-winning drive this season and he seems to be getting worse as the year goes on. His conservative instincts are what’s dragging his game and his team down. Bridgewater throwing short of the sticks in crunchtime and hanging onto the ball too long on a few of the four sacks he took are unforgivable errors for a quarterback with his experience. It’s time to start thinking about finding a new franchise QB. For now, they should give P.J. Walker another shot.
