Buccaneers Undervalued And Can Cover Against Ravens

Ravens vs. Buccaneers, 8:15 ET

Ravens vs. Buccaneers, 8:15 ET

The NFL weekend has been decent to this point as the season continues to take shape. We have the clear great teams – like the Chiefs, Lions, even Vikings after a loss, and probably both of the Texans and Packers who faced each other. We have the bad teams as well – the Panthers, Patriots, Jets, even the Jaguars, and Raiders come to mind for me. The rest of the teams are somewhere in between I suppose.  Tonight we get two Monday Night Football Games. Both of these teams might be great, but I’m not fully convinced on either of them as the Ravens take on the Buccaneers. 

The Ravens come into the game with a 4-2 record for the year and after panic started to set in after the first two weeks of the season were in the books. They lost to the Chiefs by a toe, which wasn’t that big of a deal. However, they then lost to the Raiders in Week 2 on their home field. I’m not sure if they just didn’t take the game seriously or what exactly happened. Either way, they have ripped off four straight wins and once again look like one of the best teams in football. I do have some hangups about their defense though. Outside of the Bills game, the Ravens have won the other three games by a total of 13 points. One game went to overtime, another they were in command of for the majority of the contest, but let the Cowboys come back in it late. The final one against Washington saw them once again give up a number of points late in the game, allowing Washington to make it closer than the game actually was. Tonight they face a Buccaneers defense that is around middle-of-the-pack in rush defense, and you know that they want to run the ball. If Jackson chooses to throw the ball, they have a chance to be productive as the Bucs have one of the worst pass defenses in football. 

The Buccaneers are not really recognized as a great team at the moment, but they are pretty solid. Baker Mayfield has transformed himself and the team since he came to the organization, and they even made the playoffs last year. Although they fell short, they put up a battle against the Lions. This season, they’ve had two losses. In the first loss it was coming off of an emotional win against the aforementioned Lions in a revenge game. They then allowed 26 points to the Broncos and got nothing done offensively. Their other loss was against the Falcons. This was a back-and-forth game, arguably one of the more entertaining games of the season. Last week they absolutely routed the Saints in New Orleans. They put up 51 points on the Saints and embarrassed them. Points should be harder to come by in this game. The Ravens have the best rushing defense in the game, but that’s not what the Buccaneers are looking to do, so it might not be that big of a deal. They do have the worst passing defense in the league and that is specifically what Tampa wants to do. 

One of the biggest question marks in this game is Mike Evans. He is Mayfield’s favorite red zone target and will make a big difference if he isn’t on the field. It does appear that Evans is playing, so I’m putting this bet in with that thought. I’m going to take the Buccaneers with the points. The Ravens defense hasn’t been good enough at keeping opponents off the board and I expect the Buccaneers to be able to at least move the ball. They will need to stop Derrick Henry on the ground though, which is easier said than done. Grab the points with the Bucs.

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