Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Time to Break Their Losing Streak?

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00:00 [MUSIC]

00:02 >> Thursday night football in Western New York.

00:05 Who will circle the wagons tonight in Buffalo between the Bills and

00:09 the Buccaneers?

00:10 Week number eight kicks off in Buffalo tonight.

00:13 He is Donnie Rightside, I am Ben Stevens.

00:16 We preview Thursday night football.

00:19 Will it be a Buffalo bounce back?

00:21 You can make a bounce back argument for the Buccaneers as well.

00:25 Donnie, the Bills enter losing two of their last three games.

00:29 The Bucs have dropped two in a row after being a three in one football team

00:33 entering their bye week, week number five.

00:36 It's an eight and a half point spread in favor of the Bills at home.

00:40 The over under 43 and a half.

00:42 Donnie, north of a touchdown, short week Thursday night football game,

00:46 eight and a half points in favor of Buffalo.

00:49 Where does your mind go first?

00:51 >> Yeah, it's taking the points here and also just looking across the board.

00:54 Fan duels showing up at eight and a half.

00:56 There are some nines and even nine and a half spins starting to creep up,

00:59 which is kind of wild to believe.

01:00 Could we see a double digit line by the time we actually get to game time?

01:03 Now if we try to break this football game down, he's okay,

01:06 offense versus defense.

01:07 Take that out of the equation.

01:08 Baker may feel coming in a little bit banged up in this game,

01:10 but better give it a go tonight.

01:12 Chris Godwin, I believe, has a neck injury, a little bit banged up.

01:14 It looks like he's going to give it a go.

01:16 Mike Evans, who's been fighting a hamstring injury for most of the season,

01:19 obviously he's gonna give it a go as well.

01:21 But you're looking at three key components here.

01:23 And I know you can't play it out this way, but if they're not at the top of their

01:26 game and they're on the road on a short work week and banged up to begin with,

01:29 forget about the prep time, it doesn't really help the cause for Tampa Bay.

01:33 But having said that, what do you get out of the Buffalo Bills that says we should

01:37 just roll the helmets out here and beat a team by double digits in the NFL?

01:40 It's not as if it's a tanking football team coming to town that's so

01:43 heavily injured that they don't care if they win or lose and

01:45 just looking to survive another week.

01:47 That's not the case.

01:48 I don't even like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers,

01:50 the way they performed over the past two weeks.

01:51 But you can also say the same thing about the Buffalo Bills.

01:54 Should have lost to the Giants, who are a bad football team, and

01:57 should have lost to the Patriots, who are an equally bad football team.

02:01 You win one and one of those games, you probably should have been 0-2.

02:03 Is this a game where you're supposed to get right?

02:05 Absolutely.

02:06 There are some numbers here on the offensive side for

02:08 the Buffalo Bills that I really do like, and

02:10 I think we can exploit against the Tampa Bay squad.

02:12 But just to get back to the original starting point here, no way I'm going with

02:16 the Buffalo Bills and laying close to double digits in this game, absolutely not.

02:19 >> Yeah, it's going to be interesting, Donnie,

02:22 because when I look at Buffalo in this football game, the Bills have been a

02:25 favorite, of course, in all seven of their games to start off this year.

02:29 Is this the bounce back spot?

02:31 But Donnie, haven't we been saying that about the Bills the last few weeks, right?

02:35 They go to London against the Jaguars as a five and a half point favorite.

02:39 They lose outright against Jacksonville.

02:41 They return home the next week, Sunday night football.

02:44 No Daniel Jones, a banged up offensive line for the G-Men.

02:48 They're a 15 and a half point favorite, maybe laying north of two touchdowns

02:53 is a little bit steep, but still you can try to win that football game by double digits.

02:58 They eke out a victory, scoring all 14 points in the fourth and

03:02 final quarter to win 14 to 9, coming nowhere close to covering.

03:07 As a 15 and a half point favorite, and then of course last week, Donnie,

03:10 going into Foxborough, it was an opportunity against a bad Patriots team and

03:14 offense to win a football game comfortably, go to above 500 in the division.

03:20 And instead, Donnie, the two losses in the AFC East for

03:23 Buffalo this year against the Jets and the Patriots.

03:27 So where is that bounce back spot for Buffalo?

03:31 I actually think it might come tonight.

03:33 The Buccaneers, Donnie, and the reason I believe that it might come tonight.

03:36 The Buccaneers have been an underdog four times this year, two and

03:39 two, both straight up and against the spread.

03:42 Meaning when they perform well against the number,

03:44 they're winning outright as an underdog.

03:47 But when they have not covered, Donnie,

03:48 it hasn't been by a point there were three point underdog and they lost by four.

03:53 No, in the games they have not covered as a dog, Donnie, right side.

03:56 The Buccaneers have lost both of those games by two touchdowns.

04:01 I actually think Buffalo, even on a short week, even laying eight and

04:05 a half, might win this game and cover by double digits this evening.

04:10 >> And also keep in mind here too, cuz we should talk about the injuries here.

04:13 Let's just say to the frontline players for

04:14 the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on offense, Vita Vella, who is a superstar defensive

04:18 tackle that can hold a running game down all by himself, banged up in question.

04:22 We don't know if he's going tonight.

04:23 If he doesn't go, that's a spur of the ground game here for the Buffalo Bills.

04:27 And also, when you talk about the Buffalo Bills,

04:30 maybe it's a perfect matchup for the Bills defense.

04:32 They don't necessarily stop the run all that well.

04:34 The one thing we do know is Tampa Bay doesn't run the football literally at all.

04:38 So maybe an all passing attack tonight for

04:40 those Tampa Bay Buccaneers to maybe force that total to go a little bit higher.

04:43 But I think the matchups are in hand for the offense of the Buffalo Bills.

04:46 And again, keep an eye on Vita Vella.

04:48 He's out tonight.

04:49 James Cook has back to back solid performances on the ground.

04:52 There's no reason to believe he can't have a third straight week of a solid

04:55 running game.

04:56 >> And when you look at what Buffalo has done recently, Donny,

04:59 against opposing quarterbacks, that 227 and a half for

05:03 Baker Mayfield might very well be in play.

05:05 As Donny said, the Bucs have the second highest passing play percentage

05:09 in the National Football League, only trailing the Minnesota Vikings.

05:12 It's around 66.8% right now for Tampa Bay.

05:16 Baker has gone over that number by himself in three of the last six.

05:20 But Mac Jones threw for 272 against Buffalo last week.

05:25 Tyrod Taylor in his first start this year for the Giants threw for 200.

05:29 And Trevor Lawrence threw for 315 in London against this Buffalo secondary,

05:35 just a few weeks ago.

05:37 I would also keep an eye on Baker Mayfield's interceptions prop tonight.

05:41 He's thrown a pick, Donny, in four consecutive games for Tampa Bay.

05:45 >> By the way, also keep in mind, something that you always have to factor in.

05:49 Where's the game being played, Ben?

05:51 It's in Buffalo.

05:51 It's late October.

05:52 Cold, windy, maybe some rain in the forecast.

05:55 Absolutely not.

05:56 65 degrees at kickoff.

05:58 No rain in the forecast.

05:59 Under 10 mile an hour winds expected tonight.

06:01 Optimum scoring condition, which always helps out when we try to get over that

06:05 misnotion of, they just can't score in prime time and 30 minutes are tough.

06:09 The weather is not gonna be a hindrance tonight.

06:11 And both of these quarterbacks should be able to sling it around the football field

06:13 and don't have any issues worrying about the weather.

06:15 So something to keep an eye on there,

06:17 which should help the passing game on both sides tonight, Ben.

06:19 [MUSIC]

06:23 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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