The Tampa Bay Buccaneers locked up the number one overall pick in the 2015 NFL Draft today, after falling to the New Orleans Saints 23-20.
Bucs led by 13 heading into the fourth quarter, but that lead went away after Lovie Smith made some questionable substitutions. It led for some people to wonder if they were tanking.
“It had nothing to do with substitutions,” Smith said. “You look at how we played. To me, I’m going to go back, we’re moving the ball fairly well even in the second half. They played a lot better. We played a lot of guys the first half also. Vincent Jackson only played a few reps. That happened in the first half also, and the team we put on the football field had a chance to win right up until (the end).
“Yeah, we didn’t have some of our best players there right in the end. But the guys we had in there we felt like we could move the ball and be able to win.”
