Tampa Bay Buccaneers at New Orleans What to Watch For

Today the Tampa Bay Buccaneers travel up to Louisiana to play the talented New Orleans Saints coming off a real bad loss to the Rams. Both teams were lauded for good draft classes and the Buccaneers specifically have a lot of young talent.

With Mark Ingram the matchups I’m excited about watching are up front for the Buccaneers.

The Young Defensive linemen

The Buccaneers have a ridiculous amount of young talent on the defensive line with Adrian Clayborn, DaQuan Bowers, Brian Price, and Gerald McCoy. McCoy is listed as probable for the game. I’ll be interested in watching how the young defensive line does vs Drew Brees who can get rid of the ball very quickly, but the Saints interior is no slouch in the run game either, so I’m interested in watching how Price and McCoy hold up vs the run. Da’quan Bowers has played sparingly and has yet to register a sack.

For the Saints first round pick Cameron Jordan is quietly putting together a nice season. he has yet to register a sack, but he has 21 tackles (and 6 the last time the Saints played the Buccaneers earlier this year).

Mason Foster manning the middle for the Buccaneers

Mason Foster is leading rookies in tackles with 32, but I’m interested in seeing how he’s playing in the middle. Is he making a lot of impact tackles, or are the tackles five yards down the field?

The play of Myron Lewis and E.J. Briggers

Is cornerback the biggest need for the Buccaneers heading into the 2012 NFL draft? I’ll be looking at the play of the young cornerbacks Myron Lewis (2nd year) and E.J. Briggers (3rd year) to find out. Ronde Barber is approaching the end of his career and Aqib Talib hasn’t been a saint off the field. If Lewis and Briggers aren’t able to stick with the Saints deep group of wide receivers the Buccaneers will definitely be looking for cornerbacks early.

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