Antoine Winfield was on his way to a scoop-and-score Sunday but the zebras called his return back, claiming an inadvertent whistle.
Man, the NFL zebras are getting shady.
Why does it seem like every decent play the Bucs make the past couple of games, someone buzzes the refs from Control Central in New York and the play is altered or reversed?
It’s almost like the NFL is in bed with a few sportsbooks.
Bucs safety Antoine Winfield sure seemed as if he got hosed today. And as Gunnery Sgt. Hartman in “Full Metal Jacket” famously said, the refs didn’t have common courtesy to give him a reach-around.
Winfield had two scoop-and-scores. Both were reversed. One zebra claimed there was a whistle that stopped a score. Like WTVT-TV Channel 13 meteorologist Paul Dellegatto twittered, it must have been one of those whistles that only dogs can hear.
Winfield, naturally, didn’t talk about those rotten calls but he did discuss the Bucs’ suffocating defense holding New Orleans to 48 yards rushing. Between Anthony Nelson and Winfield, the two nearly beat New Orleans by themselves.
If Nelson wasn’t making a play, it was Winfield, and vice versa.
The Bucs had four takeaways, the most in a game in two seasons. Winfield said that has always been a goal of the defense.
“Try to take the ball away as much as possible and give our offense more opportunities,” Winfield said.
Between Winfield and Nelson, it seems like the slimy Saints couldn’t mount any sort of offense.
In the second half, the Bucs defense fully put the slimy Saints offense under lock and key. The slimy Saints didn’t have a play inside Bucs’ territory until 7:59 left in the game. By that time, the Bucs had a 20-point lead and the Bucs were already eating a W on the bench.
That, boys and girls, is playing defense.