NFL Football Betting: Tampa Bay Bucs at New Orleans Saints

Added on Nov 06, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

NFC South action highlights Sunday’s NFL betting card as the first place New Orleans Saints host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. New Orleans is 5-3 on the year with Tampa Bay right behind at 4-3. Tampa is coming off a bye week while the Saints were upset last week by the lowly St. Louis Rams.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at New Orleans Saints
November 6, 2011 10:00 AM Pacific

The Bucs are definitely an improved team and their scrappy play and tenacity makes them an easy team to root for. This is a brutal situational matchup for them, however, as they catch a Saints team coming off a loss and in revenge mode for an early season loss to the Bucs at Tampa. The Saints are a team built for indoors play on turf, so the Tampa off surface had as much to do with the loss as anything. The Saints’ offense is as good as ever and Drew Brees is still one of the best quarterbacks in the game. We generally like the Bucs’ Josh Freeman but he’s not having a particularly good season passing the football. In 2010, Freeman had a 25 to 6 touchdown to interception ratio while this season he’s thrown only 7 touchdowns against 10 interceptions. Season to date, Freeman has been intercepted in five of seven games and he’s being asked to do more through the air with the injury to running back LeGarrette Blount and a season ending injury to Blount’s backup Earnest Graham.

Tampa Bay has benefited in recent years from ‘sneaking up’ on their opponents–that’s why they’re 13-4 against the spread on the road since 2009. They’re also 7-1 ATS on turf and 6-0 ATS in domes. They won’t be sneaking up on an angry Saints team looking for revenge and that’s doubly bad news since the Bucs have injuries not only to Blount and Graham but throughout their offensive and defensive lines. Even at their best, the Bucs’ defense would be hard pressed to stop Drew Brees and the Saints’ offense and with Freeman struggling with his accuracy it’s doubtful that Tampa Bay’s offense can keep pace. Saints win this one in a rout easily covering the pointspread.

Bet New Orleans Saints -8 over Tampa Bay Bucs