The Atlanta Falcons need to start winning games in bunches if they have any plans of making the boat to the playoffs, as they are currently last in the NFC South with a 1-4 record. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, meanwhile, are starting to look like pretenders, as they’ve now lost two in a row after reaping the benefits of Fitzmagic in the first two weeks of the season.
The Bucs and the Falcons share the same odds of +1,400 to win the NFC South division.
Jameis Winston was a bit rusty when he made his season-debut back in Week 4’s 48-10 loss to the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field, passing for 145 yards and a touchdown against two interceptions on 16-of-20 completions. But Winston should have dusted himself off of any cobwebs following a bye. Furthermore, he’s not going to deal withe the flesh-eating defense of the Bears this time around. Instead, he’ll be dealing with the cotton-soft stop unit of the Falcons, who are allowing 32.6 points and 277.2 passing yards per game — 31st and 23rd in the league, respectively. Wide receiver Mike Evans must be making plans for a postgame party even before he faces Atlanta’s secondary that was largely responsible for allowing Antonio Brown rack up 101 receiving yards and two touchdowns last week.
The Bucs are 2-1 SU and ATS in their last three road games against Atlanta.
Betting on the Atlanta Falcons (1-4)
The Falcons are flirting with disaster. They are currently on a three-game losing skid following a devastating 41-17 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 5. Once again, it’s the Falcons’ defense that should be mostly blamed for yet another on-field debacle of the team. That said, the team’s morale should remain high, as they look to take advantage of a match against the also-struggling Tampa Bay defense. The Bucs’ stop unit is arguably the only group worse than that of Atlanta’s. In fact, Tampa Bay is last in the league with 34.8 points allowed per game. That should be music to the ears of quarterback Matt Ryan, who’s been a steady performer under center for the Falcons’ offense that is 1oth in the league in scoring (26.6) and ninth in passing yards per game (304.2). Ryan has 1,601 passing yards on the season to go with 11 touchdowns against only two interceptions. He hasn’t been picked off in any of the Falcons’ last three games.
The over is 3-0 in Atlanta’s last three home games.
