NFL Betting Preview: Miami Dolphins at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
A 2014 schedule of less than captivating Monday Night NFL matchups continues this evening as the Miami Dolphins make the short trip to take on the winless Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the ‘Cigar City. The Bucs parted company with malcontent quarterback Josh Freeman earlier this season and rookie Kevin Glennon has shown some promise but the end result has been the same. Tampa Bay will enter this game with a record of 0-8 SU/2-6 ATS. Miami is right at the ‘Mendoza line’ on the season with a record of 4-4 SU/ATS.
Both teams have a lot of injuries but its questionable whether the Bucs have the offensive playmakers necessary to get a victory here against a competent opponent. At this stage they have to rely a lot on rookie quarterback Glennon and are very one dimensional with talented running back Doug Martin out of Boise State sidelined with an injury. Tampa did come close to pulling one of the biggest upsets of the season at Seattle last week, eventually losing by 3 put easily covering the pointspread as +16 underdogs. The Bucs got a nice effort from backup running back Mike James (158 yards) and Glennon putting up two TD passes and no interceptions. There’s much to suggest that Seattle was simply ‘flat’ and didn’t take the Bucs as seriously as they should.
Miami has been in the sports news more than any other time during the past week or so but not for anything good–they’re dealing with the bizarre situation between Richie Incognito and Jonathan Martin. It’s hard to figure out what’s really going on there and as a result it’s hard to determine what sort of impact it’ll have on the Dolphins’ locker room. It might not matter–there’s a growing sentiment that coach Joe Philbin and GM Jeff Ireland might be sent packing in an effort to clear the Dolphins of culpability in the mess. This may be the Bucs’ best chance to get a win given the relative parity between the teams and Dolphins’ off field issues. We’ll back the home team getting points and look for this game to slip ‘Over’ the total.
BET TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS +2′ OVER MIAMI DOLPHINS
BET TAMPA BAY/MIAMI OVER 41
