Beat-up Bucs ride defense, 4 turnovers to shutdown win over Saints Baker Mayfield and the entire offense was out of gas, but the Bucs still had a few gallons of grit. Even so, it took a seldom starting 6-foot-7 outside linebacker tipping a pass to himself like he was playing against little kids, bulldozing the quarterback and scoring his first career touchdown. Anthony Nelson was just getting started, but before he finished Sunday's 23-3 win over Saints, he had two sacks and a forced fumble to go with his first career pick-six. He started a feeding frenzy that ended with the Bucs defense tallying two interceptions and two fumble recoveries, including another one returned for a TD by Antoine Winfield Jr. that was wiped out by a phantom whistle. It was more survival than a statement. But the Bucs are 6-2 heading into a much-needed bye week. Their message? Heaven help the rest of the NFC if this team gets healthy. "Resilient group. To be 6-2 with all the guys we've had down, all the guys that have had to step up and thrown in the fire there, that's awesome to be able to see," Mayfield said. "The bye week is much needed for this group, but we'll always take the win. Don't get me wrong about that. But offensively, that wasn't good enough or close to what we want it to look like. Defense and special teams played absolutely outstanding. And it was really fun to watch on their part. "It'd be nice if we'd match their energy and their play. But watching that, that's unbelievable. The only reason (the Saints) got points was because of the turnover at the end of the half and they were damn near in field-goal range. They played a shutout ballgame in my eyes with everybody flying around and making plays and (Nelson) played a helluva game." Until Sunday, it had been the fabulous Baker boys getting all the attention for the Bucs' nail-biting wins with their MVP candidate quarterback. On Sunday, the Bucs offense was pretty poor. Mayfield was sacked three times. They needed eight plays,all runs,on first and goal from the 1-yard line Sunday to get into the end zone. The Bucs totalled only 212 yards, went 3 of 13 on third down, averaged only 3 yards per rush and ran only 56 plays while losing a fumble. Not the recipe to win on the road in the NFC South by 20. And yet sometimes you can win a game against a poor team with just the defense and special teams playing well. Also credit place-kicker Chase McLaughlin, who connected on field goals of 55, 52 and 54 yards Sunday. That left him perfect this season on all eight attempts from 50 yards or more. But back to the defense, because they were the story. The Bucs had five sacks and four takeaways. Winfield was all over the field with six tackles, an interception and a fumble recovery. He took both to the house, but officials ruled him down by contact on the interception and said an inadvertent whistle canceled the fumble scoop and score. "He had a helluva day," Todd Bowles said. "I'm still pissed off over some of it but that's tough sledding. He did a helluva job today getting the ball out and we've got to do something. We'll discuss that with the league and go from there." Did he get a good explanation Sunday? "No, the referee (Ronald Torbert) he said it was an erroneous whistle," Bowles said. "When he hit him he stripped him so I don't know. I got no answers." Torbert didn't have any either. Here's what he told Luke Johnson of The Times-Picayune/Advocate in a pool report: "We ruled there was a fumble," he said. "It was recovered by the defense but there was a whistle blown from the other side of the field. The official thought that the runner was down. We were able to award the defense the ball after the fumble but because the whistle had been blown we could not award the advance afterward." Got it. But plays like that by Saints starter Spencer Rattler made New Orleans turn to rookie quarterback Tyler Shough in the second half. Neither got the Saints to sniff the end zone. In fact, the Saints didn't end a possession in the Bucs' red zone until marching to the Tampa Bay 15-yard line to end the game. "When you go into the season, you know there's games when (the offense) is picking us up and we're picking them up," Nelson said. "I think you've got to take advantage when you get on a roll in a game where everybody is punching out the ball, everybody is flying around, you've got to keep your foot on the gas. It comes down to trust. We trust them, they trust us." As they left the Superdome, Bowles could only muse what the team would be like if they got offensive lineman Luke Goedeke, running back Bucky Irving, linebacker Haason Reddick or even receivers Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Jalen McMillan back this season. "It ought to be huge," Bowles said. "It's halfway through the season. We need it more than anybody. Credit those guys for fighting week in and week out, people stepping up and people moving to different positions and helping us win, which you have to do in order to be a good team. We've done that in the first half. We've got to rest up. It's going to be a hell of a second half so we've got to get ready for it." Rick Stroud, Tampa Bay Times, published 27 October 2025