Tampa Bay Buccaneers 23 New Orleans Saints 13 Sunday 2 January 2011 at the Louisiana Superdome

SCORING TB 9:58-1Q Barth FG43 NO 4:41-1Q Graham 4 pass from Brees (Hartley kick) TB 6:40-2Q Briscoe 2 pass from Freeman (Barth kick) NO 10:30-3Q Hartley FG45 TB 8:01-3Q Barth FG32 TB 2:09-3Q M.Williams 18 pass from Freeman (Barth kick) NO 11:17-4Q Hartley FG38 TB 4:01-4Q Barth FG48

The Bucs finished the season with another win, their 10th in all but still missed out on the playoffs. To get to the playoffs, they needed the Bears to beat the Packers and the Redskins to beat the Giants. Neither did, but no one in the Bucs' locker room blamed the Bears or Redskins for sealing their fate. The Packers claimed the NFC's final playoff spot. "We kind of did this to ourselves,'' Josh Freeman said. "There were a number of games this year where we can look back say, 'Yeah, we should have won that game.' ''

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS: Blount 19-66, Freeman 4-11, C.Williams 1-7. SAINTS: Bush 9-70, Ivory 7-33, Jones 4-6, Daniel 1-0, Meacham 1-(-3). PASSING BUCS: Freeman 26-21- 255-0-2, Spurlock 1-0-0-0-0. SAINTS: Brees 38-22-196-1-1, Daniel 3-2-16-0-0. RECEIVING BUCS: Briscoe 4-65, M.Williams 4-40, Winslow 3-28, Stovall 2-45, Parker 2-33, Blount 2-2, Lumpkin 1-12, Purvis 1-11, Lorig 1-10, Gilmore 1-9. SAINTS: Arrington 7-79, Moore 6-53, Bush 5-55, Graham 2-15, Jones 2-3, Meacham 1-5, Evans 1-2. INTERCEPTIONS BUCS: Asante 1-4. SAINTS: none. KICK RETURNS BUCS: Spurlock 3-108. SAINTS: Henderson 6-142. PUNT RETURNS BUCS: Spurlock 1-4. SAINTS: Bush 1-7. SACKS BUCS: Miller 1-7, Magee 1-4, Hayes 1-2 SAINTS: Charleston 1-10, Smith 1-9, Brown 1-3.

STARTERS OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 70 Penn DE 96 Crowder LG 62 Larsen DT 98 Okam C 76 Zuttah DT 90 Miller RG 73 Hardman DE 71 Bennett RT 65 Trueblood WLB 54 Hayes TE 82 Winslow MLB 51 Ruud TE 88 Gilmore SLB 57 Hayward WR 19 Williams LCB 31 Biggers WR 85 Stovall RCB 20 Barber RB 27 Blount SS 26 Jones QB 5 Freeman FS 41 Lynch PLAYED 1 Malone, 10 Barth, 11 J Johnson, 21 Harris, 22 Asante, 23 Lewis, 24 Williams, 28 Lumpkin, 33 Mack, 44 Lorig, 48 Economos, 50 McKenzie, 53 Koutouvides, 56 Watson, 77 Lee, 80 Purvis, 81 Spurlock, 87 Parker, 89 Briscoe, 91 White, 95 Woods, 97 Magee DID NOT PLAY 60 Carter INACTIVE 12 Carpenter, 18 Stroughter, 29 Johnson, 34 Graham, 61 Barker, 67 Johnson, 79 Worthington, 84 Overbay

GAME REPORTS Roy Cummings reports from the Superdome Joe Henderson knows that more is still to come How Rick Stroud saw the game unfold Gary Shelton offers his opinions on events LeGarrette Blount batters his way to a 1,000-yard season The gamble on 4th down paid off big time for the Bucs And yet more rookies step up to the plate Game notes and anecdotes from the Tampa locker room Scott Smith's detailed game report The official gamebook and play-by-play

COMMENTARY CREW Thom Brennaman and Brian Billick