TAMPA, Fla. -- There were several players wearing championship T-shirts. Maybe two or three wearing championship hats.

But there was nothing jovial about the New Orleans Saints' postgame locker room as players almost reluctantly forced themselves to try to enjoy "winning" the NFC South title on a day when they suffered an ugly 31-24 loss at Tampa Bay.

"It's great that we had a division championship. Awesome. I've got higher goals. I want more," Saints defensive end Cameron Jordan said after the Saints (11-5) backed into their first division title in six years, thanks to the Carolina Panthers (11-5) also losing at Atlanta.

Now the Saints (as the No. 4 seed) and Panthers (as the No. 5 seed) will meet for a third time next Sunday afternoon at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome -- both of them hoping that the idea of momentum is overrated.

"We've got higher goals. We can't go out and overlook a team like this," Jordan said of a Buccaneers team that finished 5-11 and snapped a five-game losing streak at the Saints' expense thanks to a 95-yard, game-winning touchdown drive in the final two minutes.

"At the end of the day, they gave us their best punch and we just acted like they weren't there, and that's on us. Everything that went wrong today, that's on us," said Jordan, who added that what he meant by "overlooked" was that Tampa Bay's "best punch" shouldn't have been enough -- that the Saints should have forced more than three turnovers or more than two sacks or done a better job capitalizing on the turnovers they did force.

Saints quarterback Drew Brees also described that conflict between celebration and frustration by saying: "I mean, it would have been much different in that locker room emotionally had we won that game."

"We've had our ups and downs this year. We've shown ourselves what is possible. And you play the regular season to get into the tournament, and that is where we are now," Brees said. "But the bottom line is I think that we recognize that there's still things that we need to work on and continue to improve upon so we can be our best heading into the playoffs."

Meanwhile, Saints coach Sean Payton suggested that neither emotion can linger much since the Saints and 11 other teams are about to start the NFL's "second season."

"When you start the season, [winning the division] is one of the objectives. And you look at the division [with New Orleans, Carolina and Atlanta all heading to the playoffs], it was strong this year," Payton said. "So there is the element of, 'We won the NFC South,' and there is that other element of, 'We have to do our best to get prepared for a game here at home.' ... We expect a really good crowd on Sunday. We'll be excited and ready to go."

Perhaps the Saints can chalk up this game to an emotional letdown in front of a sparse crowd after they had already clinched a playoff berth one week earlier with their most emotional victory of the season at home against the Falcons.

But that surely won’t keep just about everyone on the roster from being chewed out during the film review.

New Orleans struggled at times in every unit. It was outgained by the Buccaneers, 455-323, and punt returner Tommylee Lewis coughed up a costly fumble that Tampa Bay returned for a 7-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter. Both the offense and defense struggled mightily on third downs in the first half (the Saints started 1-of-4, while Tampa Bay started 10-of-11 against the New Orleans defense) before both units improved in the second half.

But the final drive was the most disturbing since the Saints had the Bucs down to a fourth-and-10 from their own 5-yard line before allowing them to march all the way down the field for the game-winning score. Tampa Bay quarterback Jameis Winston, who was off-target for much of the day, finished by dropping a pretty 39-yard TD pass into receiver Chris Godwin hands over the head of Saints cornerback Ken Crawley with nine seconds remaining.

Fortunately for the Saints, they still have electrifying rookie Alvin Kamara -- who had one of his best performances to date with a 106-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, a 7-yard TD run and 128 total yards from scrimmage.

And they showed big-play ability on defense with two interceptions by rookie safety Marcus Williams and an interception by linebacker Craig Robertson.

But they'll need more than that against better opponents if they don't want their playoff run to fizzle out quickly.

Saints receiver Michael Thomas -- who had six catches for 94 yards while setting the NFL record for most catches in the first two seasons of a career -- said he had never experienced a moment like this, winning a title while losing a game. So he said he'd look to his coaches for the right perspective. But Thomas said he knows what his overriding emotion is heading into his playoff debut.

"It's time to start winning again," Thomas said.