On Sunday night, the Saints blasted Tampa Bay back to the days of the Yuccaneers, embarrassing the home team with a 38-3 beatdown. Coach Bruce Arians believes that his team will respond well to extreme adversity.
“I think we have great leadership, and when you have really good leadership, very seldom will you ever lose two in a row,” Arians told reporters on Friday. “We’ve always preached that to our guys. This week of practice has been outstanding -- just as if when we won our last ballgame. The one thing I can never complain about is our guys’ work ethic. [Their] attention to detail has been outstanding. I would anticipate them to bounce back pretty good.”
The Buccaneers currently are favored by six points to beat the Panthers on Sunday. A win, especially a convincing one, would re-establish the Buccaneers as one of the better teams in the conference. A loss would drop them to 6-4 and put them in danger of not making the playoffs.