I love Saints/Bucs. pic.twitter.com/ZiJR2ADH7N
Buy Saints Tickets— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) September 18, 2022
This is insane. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ little-brother complex fired up against the New Orleans Saints early in the fourth quarter on Sunday, with Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans taking a cheap shot at Marshon Lattimore that led to a bench-clearing brawl and multiple ejections.
Lattimore smothered Buccaneers wideout Scottie Miller on an incomplete pass down the sideline, and was jawing with Tom Brady and Leonard Fournette after the play. Fournette and Lattimore started shoving, then Evans jumped in to throw Lattimore to the turf. That brought everyone into the mix and took some time to sort out.
Fournette wasn’t thrown out for instigating the scrap. Buccaneers receiver Russell Gage wasn’t ejected for sucker punching Lattimore in the scrum after the referees separated everyone. But the officials chose to toss both Lattimore and Evans from the game, citing offsetting penalties — apparently Lattimore shouldn’t have taken a cheap-shot he didn’t see coming.
Whatever the case, it’s a big loss. The Buccaneers are without their top receiver, and the Saints are now playing without their top corner. Evans only had 3 receptions on the day, so if he gave himself up to get the opposing team’s best defender ejected he probably thinks it was worth it. Still, Tampa Bay was already down starting receivers Chris Godwin and Julio Jones due to injuries.
