The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the New Orleans Saints, 16-11, on Sunday to extend their winning skein to five games, which is tied with Detroit for the longest active streak in the NFL after Dallas fell to the New York Giants on Sunday night.

The last time the Buccaneers won five in a row was in 2002, which most Buccaneer fans will instantly recognize as the one that ended in a Super Bowl championship. Tampa Bay's current run is tied for its third-longest ever and tied for its second-longest ever in a single season. One more victory and the team will match its best run in 41 seasons.

Longest Winning Streaks, Buccaneers History

The Buccaneers have also won seven of their last nine games after a 1-3 start, dating back to a Monday Night Football victory in Carolina in Week Five. The last time Tampa Bay won seven times in a nine-game stretch was in 2008, from Games 4-12. The Buccaneers are tied for the fifth-best record in the NFL since Week Five.

Record Since Week Five, NFL

The Buccaneers are 8-5 overall, their best record after 13 games since they were also 8-5 in 2010. That team finished 10-6 but missed the playoffs on a fifth-level tiebreaker against the eventual Super Bowl champs, Green Bay. This is the first time since 2007 that the Bucs have been in first or tied for first in the NFC South since 2007, which was also the last time Tampa Bay qualified for the playoffs.

The Bucs' winning streak has been characterized by a stingy and turnover-happy defense. Tampa Bay has forced 14 turnovers in the last five weeks, the most in the NFL. Here are some additional defensive categories and where the Buccaneers rank in each one among NFL teams since Week 10:

The 64 combined points the Buccaneers have allowed to the Bears, Seahawks, Chiefs, Chargers and Saints are the fewest the team has given up in a five-game stretch since 2008. That squad gave up 63 points from Games 4-8.

If we eliminate overlapping streaks, the Bucs' current run is just the 11th time the team has given up 65 or fewer points in a five-game run during their 41-year history.

Fewest Points Allowed, Five-Game Stretch, Buccaneer History*

( Only the lowest point total from overlapping streaks in the same season included.)

Even more impressively, Tampa Bay's defense has been nearly impenetrable in the second half, which has allowed the team to stay on top in those close games. During the five-game winning streak, the Bucs have given up a total of two touchdowns and one field goal after the intermission. Those 17 second-half points are the fewest the team has allowed over a five-game stretch since 2008, and tied for the fourth-fewest in team history. Since there is only one overlapping streak this time, we'll include both parts of it. Unsurprisingly, it was from the 2002 Super Bowl season.

Fewest Second-Half Points Allowed, Five-Game Stretch, Buccaneer History

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The fewest points the Buccaneers allowed overall during that five-game stretch was five, to Seattle in Week 11. However, Sunday's 16-11 win over the Saints might have been the most impressive effort by the Buccaneers' defense because it came against the NFL's second-highest scoring offense through the first 12 games of the season. Sunday's game marked just the second time since Drew Brees and Sean Payton arrived in New Orleans in 2006 that the Saints failed to score a single touchdown in a game. Drew Brees's passer rating of 48.4 was his lowest in a single game since 2012, his third-lowest since he joined the Saints and his 11th-lowest overall in 230 career games and 229 starts.

Here are some of the Saints' offensive numbers through their first 12 games compared to what the Bucs allowed on Sunday:

All of that, of course, was keyed by the Buccaneers' three interceptions off Brees, including Keith Tandy's pick near midfield on the Saints' last play from scrimmage. After dominating Chicago, 36-10, the Buccaneers have won four close games and in each case have relied on the defense to apply the finishing touchdowns.

In fact, the Buccaneers have forced a turnover to end their opponents' final drive in four straight games. The last team to do that was the 2003 New England Patriots, who went on to win Super Bowl XXXVIII.

Individually, Tandy is the first player to force turnovers to end an opposition's final drive in two straight games since San Francisco's Perrish Cox in 2014.

Amazingly, the Buccaneers have climbed up the turnover-ratio chart from a league-worst negative-9 after four games to the current mark of plus-six, which is the NFL's sixth-best. Here's a look at how thoroughly Tampa Bay has turned around the takeaway category after those first four games:

Another area in which Tampa Bay's defense has improved dramatically in the second half of the season is in its own red zone. The NFL ranks red zone defenses by the percentage of such drives on which the team allows a touchdown. The Bucs have cut their own mark in that category in half during their winning streak.

Red Zone Defense, Buccaneers

On Sunday, the Saints scored on neither of their two red zone drives, including one near the end of the first half on which New Orleans actually earned a first-and-goal at the one. That's an area in which the Buccaneers have been excellent all season. In fact, Tampa Bay's defense ranks fifth in the league in "Goal-to-Go Defense," which is ranked by touchdown percentage, as with the red zone rankings.

Lowest Goal-to-Go Touchdown Percentage Allowed, NFL

Though we're focusing mainly on defense here, this is a good point at which to note that Tampa Bay's offense remains the best in the league at converting goal-to-go situations into touchdowns. The Buccaneers have been first or tied for first in this category all season. Tampa Bay's offense also leads the NFL in average points scored on goal-to-go drives.

Highest Goal-to-Go Touchdown Percentage, NFL

All told, the Buccaneers are enjoying the best goal-to-go advantage in the NFL. They are the only team to rank in the top five in that category on both offense and defense and one of only four teams (also Indianapolis, Dallas and Pittsburgh) to rank in the top 10 on both sides. Tampa Bay has the greatest differential in the league between its own goal-to-go touchdown efficiency and what it has allowed its opponents.

The Buccaneers get 1.33 more points, on average, out of their goal-to-go incursions than their opponents. That's the second-best differential in the NFL.

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Additional Notes

• Sunday's game marked the sixth time this season that the Buccaneers have led after three quarters, and the team has managed to win all six of those contests. The last time Tampa Bay went an entire season without losing a game in which they led entering the fourth quarter was 2006. There were only two such instances that season, and the Bucs won them both. The last time Tampa Bay had at least five games in which it led after three quarters and managed to win them all was 2005 (9-0).

• The Buccaneers have also won all four games this season in which it held opponents below 20 points. The last time the Bucs were undefeated in such situations was 2011, when they went 4-0.

• CB Brent Grimes had one of the Buccaneers' three interceptions against New Orleans, giving him a team-leading three picks on the year. It's the fourth straight season that Grimes has secured at least three interceptions, including each of the last three when he was playing for the Miami Dolphins. Grimes and Aqib Talib are the only two players in the NFL who have had at least three interceptions in each of the last four seasons.

The Buccaneers have won each of the three games in which Grimes has intercepted a pass this season, continuing a career-long trend of his takeaways being associated with victories. Grimes has picked off at least one pass in 27 games while playing for the Falcons (2007-12), Dolphins (2013-15) and Buccaneers. His teams are 22-5 in those games.

• Tight end Cameron Brate led the Bucs with four receptions for 47 yards on Sunday against the Saints. On the season, he has 51 receptions for 575 yards and six touchdowns, all of which rank second on the team behind wide receiver Mike Evans.

Brate first joined the Buccaneers as a rookie free agent in 2014 after not being selected in that year's draft. According to Statspass, Brate is just the ninth undrafted tight end in NFL history to post a 50-catch season. Future Hall-of-Famer Antonio Gates has done it 11 times for the San Diego Chargers and former Packer Paul Coffman did it three times, as did former Giant Bob Tucker. Former Viking Jermain Wiggins accomplished the feat twice. The other tight ends on the list are Alvin Reed (Oilers), Chad Lewis (Eagles), Larry Donnell (Giants) and Tim Wright (Buccaneers).