For much of the past three months, it seemed like the tightly bunched NFC South was destined to be decided in the final week of the regular season.
At times it looked as though the champion might not even have a winning record — which is what happened last season when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers clinched the division with an 8-9 mark.
This time around, Tampa Bay has gotten hot at the right time and has won four games in a row, and it can lock down the top spot in the NFC South with a victory on Sunday against the visiting New Orleans Saints.
“It means a ton just to be able to possibly do it at home and against a division opponent as well,” Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield said of clinching. “The things we’ve had to do and go through to get to this point, it means quite a bit when you look at having to rattle off this many (wins) in a row and having to do it again at home.
“It’s a great opportunity for us and just the beginning of where we eventually want to get to.”
Tampa Bay (8-7) won its first two games but slid to 4-7 after losing seven of nine before the current winning streak began.
The Buccaneers have averaged 28.5 points per game during the winning streak after scoring at least 28 points just once in their first 11 contests. They gained a season-high 452 yards in a Dec. 17 victory against Green Bay and had their fifth-highest total (335 yards) last week against Jacksonville.
“The (key) was to weather the storm, trust the system, don’t try and do too much, don’t reinvent the wheel,” Mayfield said. “Just stick with it, just improve on it and finally success will come within the system.”
Tampa Bay holds the tiebreaker against New Orleans and the Atlanta Falcons, who are tied for second in the division at 7-8. The Buccaneers handed the Saints their most lopsided loss of the season — 26-9 — back in Week 4 in New Orleans.
The Saints lost control of their fate when the Bucs defeated Jacksonville 30-12 last Sunday, three days after New Orleans lost 30-22 to the host Los Angeles Rams.
“When you’re in this league, every time you get an opportunity to take the field you need to make sure you’re taking advantage of it,” Saints coach Dennis Allen said. “So, we need to go play good football, and we need to get a win and it starts this week against Tampa.”
New Orleans has lost more games than it has won even though it is in the top half of the NFL in both scoring (22.1 points per game, tied for 13th) and scoring defense (19.8 points allowed per game, ninth).
“You would expect to win more games (with those statistics),” Allen said. “We’ve got to ultimately finish games out. All of us understand that this is a production-based business. I don’t think anybody’s trying to skirt that. We’ve got to do a better job of producing and producing wins.”
Saints running back Alvin Kamara and punter Lou Hedley each missed practice on Friday due to an illness, and they were listed as questionable for the Sunday game. Defensive end Isaiah Foskey (quad) and running back Kendre Miller (ankle) also were questionable after being limited at practice all week.
New Orleans offensive tackle Ryan Ramczyk (knee) and cornerback Lonnie Johnson (knee) did not practice this week and were ruled out. Defensive end Cameron Jordan (ankle) and wide receiver Chris Olave (ankle) were among those limited this week, but they did not have injury-status designations.
Buccaneers linebacker Shaquil Barrett (groin), cornerback Carlton Davis (concussion), tight end Ko Kieft (shoulder), defensive lineman Mike Greene (calf) and wide receiver Rakim Jarrett (quad) were ruled out. Wide receiver Chris Godwin (knee/rest) did not practice Thursday but was a full participant Friday.
