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The New Orleans Saints ended a dismal season by overcoming a listless first half performance and rallying to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23-20 at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday.

The Saints (7-9) finished with seven wins for the third time since Sean Payton took over as head coach in 2006. The Saints had the same record in 2007 and 2012, when Payton was away from the team due to a suspension.

The Bucs (2-14) finished the season with their worst record since 1986 entered the game with the NFL's second-worst rushing offense, averaging only 79 yards a game. They blew past that total in the second quarter, finishing with 183 yards on the ground as they wore out the Saints' struggling defense with lengthy drives in the first half.

Saints quarterback Drew Brees threw three interceptions against a defense that hadn't picked off a pass in a month. But the Bucs failed to convert the turnovers into touchdowns, which allowed the Saints to come back after trailing by as much as 13 in the fourth quarter.

Mark Ingram's 1-yard touchdown run cut the Bucs' lead to 20-14 with 14:02 left in the game.

Saints cornerback Keenan Lewis intercepted a McCown pass that was bobbled and tipped by receiver Tavarres King, giving the Saints possession at the 50 with 5:20 left in the game. After converting on fourth-and-2, Brees hit Marques Colston as he dashed across the field for a 36-yard touchdown reception.

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OldMaid

2014 Saints
7-9
Ok.

AtlFal will be 7-9 (division game wins on their side) or CarPanth will be 7-8-1

Pitiful division. Pitiful year.

Glad Saints won today. Still. Makes no difference, but still.


Still waving my flag here.

UK_WhoDat

I am one happy bunny. Can't help it. Whatever the game, I want to see Saints win.

halloween 65

This game showed me just how bad we really are. Looking forward to see who gets cut, who gets fired(oh how I would like to hand 4 coaches their walking papers) and the draft. I sure hope we don't screw up the draft this year again!! I would love to trade a few players and slide back a few spots in the draft for extra picks.

pumpkindriver

I"m shocked, I totally gave up on them right before halftime and turned the game off. We can only hope things are better next year.

neugey

Does one of these coaches include Payton? It sounds like a plan to me. All Payton seems to want to do is collect a game check, re-run the same old plays and be Brees' BFF. And Payton's actions showed today he has zero interest in developing younger players. This is not a recipe for success. We have to be mindful that Payton's days as a competent head coach may be over and consider making a move before the damage becomes too severe.

NOLA54

So what? In a year when the division imploded on itself Carolina wins it 2 years in a row! A first for the NFC south. We should have been able to win the division but we stayed bad enough blow the hold thing.

I am so happy the season is over and I'm extremely angry at this team from top to bottom. Just how many turnovers can Drew have in one fricking season?

Some big changes need to happen and it better start this week.

VegasSaint9

This is very true and deserves speculation. Payton hasn't done a good job stemming back to mid-way last season. We just look unprepared for every game, unmotivated, just playing plain bad football. Call up Les Miles or something I don't think this team is looking quite how it should and it goes all the way up to the GM.

captainshawn

It would be INSANE to fire SP.

Beastmode

Relieved this derailed train finally lost all momentum. We would have been crushed like a bug in the ground in the playoffs. The OL has to be built with the best we can manage, and I mean the best. We have 1-2 years of Brees and that's it. I would not even be that concerned with the defense. They are good enough right now if we can score 25-30 points a game. This patching together experiment failed.