Just not enough

• By SHELDON MICKLES
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Dec 8, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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TAMPA, Fla. — The much-maligned New Orleans Saints defense couldn’t celebrate one of its finest performances of the season Sunday afternoon.

New Orleans held the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to 254 yards, the Saints’ second-lowest total this season, and surrendered a season-low 105 net passing yards.

They also held the Bucs to 2-of-13 on third-down opportunities, recorded four sacks and forced two fumbles — recovering one.

More importantly, they dug deep and came up with three important stops in the final quarter to give the Saints offense an opportunity for a comeback win — only to watch the Bucs take a 23-20 victory.

But their extraordinary effort was wasted when Drew Brees threw two interceptions in the final four minutes, with one leading to Matt Bryant’s game-winning 37-yard field goal with 1:55 to play.

Actually, Saints cornerback Randall Gay said the Saints needed one more play to come away with a win. The one that hurt the most, he said, came in the third quarter when Jeff Garcia threw a 39-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Antonio Bryant to give the Bucs a 20-10 lead.

“This one is tough because we didn’t make the play we needed to win the game,” Gay said. “That’s what football is about. The defense played well, but that one play may have won the game for us.”

On the play, the Saints brought heavy pressure and defensive end Will Smith hit Garcia in his non-throwing shoulder as he released the ball. Bryant made a double-move, splitting two defenders to make the grab before sprinting to the end zone.

“We were being aggressive, you have to play like that,” Gay said.

“As a whole, we played alright. We kept our team in the game when we were down and we gave our offense a chance.”

They held the Bucs to two field goals in the first half before Tampa Bay drove 46 and 43 yards to touchdowns on their first two possessions of the second half.

The first was set up on a 34-yard kickoff return and 15-yard facemask penalty on Leigh Torrence and the second came after the Bucs returned a 38-yard Glenn Pakulak punt across midfield.