Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1-0 SU, 1-0 ATS) vs. Arizona Cardinals (0-1 SU, 0-1 ATS)
Week 2 NFL
Date/Time: Sunday, September 18, 2016 at 4:05PM EST
Where: U of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Arizona
TV: Fox
By Loot, NFL Football Handicapper, Lootmeister.com
Betting Odds: TB +6.5/ARI -6.5
Over/Under Total: 50
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers make the trip out west to face the Arizona Cardinals in key week two action. The Bucs opened the season with a nice divisional road win in Atlanta, 31-24. They look to open the season with two road wins, but will have their hands full with an Arizona team that is eager to not open the season with consecutive home losses. In opening week one Sunday night action, the favored Cardinals lost to the Patriots, 23-21. Tampa will be facing an irritated Cardinals team that will gunning hard for a win, something they so narrowly had on Sunday night.
The Cardinals were in it with a chance to win late against New England, but Chandler Catanzaro missed a 47-yard FG to take the lead. All in all, it was a difficult night for the Cardinals. They didn't have any turnovers on offense, but still labored for most of the evening, with three scoring drives and a lot of unfulfilled drives. Still, some of the vast cast of playmakers popped their heads up to be accounted for. David Johnson had 89 yards on the ground, including a riveting 45-yard scamper and a TD score. Old reliable receiver Larry Fitzgerald caught 8 balls, including a TD. John Brown and Michael Floyd were quiet and Carson Palmer was at least a tick off his peak form, which had a lot to do with the stellar play of the New England defense. They also seemed to be hit with a weird sense of being out-of-sync and just kind of flat. One shouldn't bank on a repeat of that performance in week two.
The Cardinals defense gave up a pretty good game to Brady-replacement Jimmy Garoppolo, but allowing 360 total yards on offense and 23 points to a Patriots offense hardly qualifies as a disaster. Giving up third down conversions at a 10-for-16 clip isn't going to get it done, but they forced two fumbles and have some pieces like Tyrann Mathieu back that will pay off sooner than later. Safety Tony Jefferson was all over the field and those two make for a premier duo at that position. Chandler Jones registered a sack against his old team in his first game with the Cardinals. They will be tested against a Tampa Bay offense that might be coming into its own.
On Sunday against the Falcons at the Georgia Dome, the Bucs fell behind early, 10-3, before going on a prolonged run of offensive production and taking a 31-13 lead in the third quarter. Two Atlanta Falcons scores gave the Buccaneers a little sweat, but they emerged with what qualifies as a good opening week development. Jameis Winston, in his second season behind center, was 23-for-31 with 4 TD throws and 281 yards. WR Mike Evans had 99 yards and a TD catch, while Adam Humphries, Charles Sims, Austin Seferian-Jenkins, Doug Martin, and Cameron Brate were all over 30 yards receiving. With 90 yards on 28 carries, the Tampa run-game wasn't terribly on-point, but Martin also added 62 yards and should warm up to the task after re-establishing his credentials with a big 2015 season.
The Tampa defense has been waiting to hit its stride for a few years now, with a lot of talent looking to be realized. Maybe this is the year where some added continuity gives this side of the ball the extra boost to become a top group. Linebacker Kwon Alexander was all over the field with 17 tackles and a sack. Up-front, Gerald McCoy also registered a sack, as did Robert Ayers. The "D" did allow a 334-yard performance from Atlanta QB Matt Ryan, but giving up 24 points to a home ATL team isn't so awful and they may have slacked off a bit mentally after building a large second-half lead, before clamping down to prevent any more damage.
It was a solid debut for first-year Tampa head coach Dirk Koetter, who looks to bring some positive things to a franchise that hasn't seen much go right since they won the Super Bowl nearly 15 years ago. If you had said after their Bowl win in the 2002 season that they'd go without a playoff win until at least 2016, you'd have seen some raised eyebrows. That's what has happened and Koetter has a long team history of coming up short to overcome. He has a number-one franchise QB in his second year, a loaded receiver crew, a top back in Martin, and a slew of compelling role pieces on offense. Add in a defense that is busting at the seams in terms of talent, it's clear that he's being given a better chance to take this team and run with it than his recent predecessors have been afforded.
Beating Atlanta on the road is a fine win and belittling that will likely not bring us any closer to being able to cover the spread in this week. At the same time, beating an Atlanta team that hasn't been able to get it together much since starting 5-0 last season and beating an urgent Arizona team on the road are two very different things. But do we really know how good the Buccaneers can be? We can guess and at the end of the day, it still might not work out for them this season. But they may have subtly come into their own and are set to prove it with two straight road triumphs to open the season.
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Week two can be a tricky time for bettors and this game seems to be particularly ripe for the week one over-emphasis factor. With teams out of action for months on end, we finally have a result upon which to judge them. The problem is that it's just one game—a 60 minute window of play that isn't always a terribly-reliable compass to evaluate teams. So, anyone thinking the Cardinals are now downwardly trending and that the Bucs are in the midst of a renaissance need to take more results into account. Getting carried away with a week one result can have us chasing our tail for the first part of the season and we don't want that.
With that said, it's fair to look at Tampa as a team on the rise, with all the typical earmarks being in place. I'd almost like their chances more if Arizona had beaten the Pats in week one, A leading Super Bowl contender that made it to he NFC title game last season, an 0-2 start would qualify as a mini-disaster for a team hoping to get home-field for the playoffs. That's maybe too much for Tampa to overcome at this point. I see Tampa giving them problems, with Arizona pulling away a bit late for the win and the cover.
Loot's Prediction to Cover the Point Spread: I'm betting on the Arizona Cardinals minus 6 points. Tired of your credit card not working for sportsbook deposit? End that problem today and bet the Bucs-Cardinals game by signing up at Bovada Sportsbook where your credit card WILL work and where you'll receive a generous 100% sign-up bonus!
