The Buccaneers need the Saints to win because of a weird NFC South tiebreaker situation: a Saints win over the Falcons locks Tampa Bay into first place, but a Falcons win creates a three‑way tie that hands the division to Carolina instead.

The basic scenario

  • The Bucs beat the Panthers to finish the regular season at 8–9, which kept them alive in the NFC South race but did not clinch the division.
  • The Panthers also finished 8–9, and Tampa Bay holds the head‑to‑head tiebreaker over Carolina in a two‑team tie.
  • The last piece is Falcons vs. Saints: that result decides whether it stays a simple two‑team situation or becomes a three‑team mess.

Why the Bucs are rooting for the Saints

  • If the Saints win or tie against the Falcons, the Falcons stay behind at 7–10 or 7–9–1, so the division comes down to Bucs vs. Panthers at 8–9, and Tampa Bay wins the NFC South on the tiebreaker.
  • If the Falcons beat the Saints, all three teams (Bucs, Panthers, Falcons) finish 8–9, and the three‑way tiebreaker shifts to division and head‑to‑head records among the three, which favors Carolina instead of Tampa Bay.

In short: Bucs fans are in the bizarre position of chanting for their rival, because “Who Dat” beating Atlanta is what sends Tampa Bay to the playoffs.

How the tiebreaker flips to Carolina

  • In a three‑way tie at 8–9 (Bucs, Panthers, Falcons), the league uses records within the games played among those three teams as an early tiebreaker step.
  • Carolina owns the best mini‑round‑robin record in that group (3–1 among the three teams), which would give the Panthers the division title and knock the Buccaneers out of the postseason despite Tampa beating Carolina head‑to‑head that final week.

Why this became a trending discussion

  • Fans and commentators have highlighted how strange it is that Tampa Bay, which “took care of business” by winning its game, still needed help from its historic rival just to hang onto the NFC South.
  • Players and local media have openly joked about Bucs fans having to pull for New Orleans, with even Bucs veterans admitting they “never thought” they’d be cheering for the Saints, yet the playoff math leaves them no choice.

TL;DR: The Buccaneers need the Saints to beat or tie the Falcons so the division stays a two‑team tie with Carolina (which the Bucs win), instead of a three‑way tie that hands the NFC South to the Panthers and ends Tampa Bay’s season.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.