There was not a nickel’s worth of difference between those two National Football League teams in New Orleans Sunday — the Buccaneers and the Saints.

Of course, that nickel’s worth just may be the difference at the regular season’s end when the Saints make the playoffs by the margin of that winning effort over the Buccaneers in their house Sunday.

Neither had the look of a team that may be coming to Tampa for the Super Bowl.

Now, on specifics, Bucko loyalists surely can declare New Orleans wouldn’t have scored the winning touchdown as it did, on a Drew Brees touchdown pass for the 24-20 difference had all-world linebacker Derrick Brooks not been sidelined with a leg injury. It was over the Brooks backup. Brooks is never out, never injured. Reminds us of the how valuable great players are. And, for another, on the 84-yard Brees touchdown pass, corner Ronde Barber fell down turning to the ball. Barber, like Brooks, is all-planet. Ira Kaufman did an in-depth story for the Tribune Sunday on Barber and Brooks. The Saints got two big breaks there. Breaks, well, the football bounces. Stuff happens. 

Perhaps the biggest setbacks for the Buckos with this loss is, Tampa and New Orleans are in the same division of the NFC, and again, there is not much difference in the abilities of these two teams. And, the Buckadoos do get the Saints in their house the next time around. The game at New Orleans was plenty loud, and the fans badly needed some good news. They got a perfecta — Ike is headed west and the Bucs went south.

On the Buc side of the ball, well, the offensive line needs help, or shoring up, if that is possible. Quarterback Jeff Garcia is no Gene Kelly. Certainly no Brett Favre. But, thought here is Garcia is as good as he is going to get. The TV guys kept saying Garcia and the marvelous Joey Galloway were not in sync because they’d not worked together more. They were certainly not together repeatedly. Garcia, no pup, has had aches and bruises. He will have more, more today, more later. Aging bones and muscles are slower to heal, if they do.

In truth, how the head coach moves with his quarterbacks is a fascination. He started Garcia because he was No. 1 last year and won the division, and well, he felt he wouldn’t make the mistakes younger guys may. Didn’t really make many Sunday. Guess here, and it is only a guess, is that the head coach will have to think whether to go with Garcia next week, and make no final decisions on that position for a while. But, he can’t afford many more losses, even if they came because Ronde Barber fell down and Brooks was out. The Brooks situation can be awful. He’s not only a playing star, he’s the leader.

The defense, up front and in the secondary, generally did fine, but cannot give up the too-frequent long gainers they did Sunday. New Orleans is not the best offensive team they will play. The secondary stood out, as did some of the down linemen and linebackers. Defensive boss Monte Kiffin will have them looking at themselves and their New Orleans game work repeatedly this week.

Frankly, the Buc special teams likely were the stars of the day, despite a rotten punt late in the game by Josh Bidwell. He had enough beauties, one downed at the Saints’ 1-yard line, though New Orleans promptly passed out of trouble. And field goal kicker Matt Bryant had something of a redemption afternoon in Saintdom. Missed nothing. But, among the special teams, best work was by the coverage teams. The Bucs were all over the kickoffs and punt return kids. The Tampa counterparts were more effective. Dexter Jackson will break one, one of these games, one that won’t be called back as they seem to be, all too often.

Can’t suggest how many games this Gruden team will win this year. Won’t try. So much of this team’s future lies with how the coach handles this quarterback situation, now that this game is on film and these Buckos are 0-1.