Saints vs. Buccaneers 2012: Tampa Bay fans rip poor defensive effort

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost a heart-breaker on Sunday, falling 35-28 to the New Orleans Saints after seemingly tying the game two different times in the final moments.

On the second-to-last play of the game, Vincent Jackson hauled in what appeared to be the game-tying score pending an extra point, but he was ruled out of bounds. On the last play, Mike Williams snagged a pass in the end zone, but was flagged for illegal touching because he was the first to touch the ball after stepping out of bounds.

Making the loss even more disappointing was the fact that Tampa Bay jumped out to a 21-7 lead, only to see the defense squander it. Sander Philipse of SB Nation's Bucs blog Bucs Nation had some harsh words for the defense:

The Bucs wore their throwback creamsicle uniforms for the home crowd, and their performance certainly was a throwback to some of those early Buccaneers teams. Defensive incompetence ruled the day, and Tampa Bay was sometimes comical in their loss.

Indeed, Tampa Bay's defense was quite bad on Sunday, giving up 377 yards and four touchdown to New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees. The poor defensive performance ruined what was a great day for the offense, who racked up 513 total yards.

Tampa Bay now sits at 2-4 and is four games behind the Atlanta Falcons in the division. The Bucs face a tough road test this Thursday night against the Minnesota Vikings.