Bucs best bets in unappetising match

Tampa Bay is better than its 2-4 record suggests and it is just about the handicap play receiving a flat seven points when it travels to Minnesota for Thursday Night Football.

To be honest, neither team is the kind to get punters in a mad rush to back it. The Buccaneers have lost each of their last nine road games, while the Vikings are only 5-2 because they have had a soft start to the National Football League season, their schedule comprising home games versus Arizona, Jacksonville, San Francisco and Tennessee and away matches against Detroit, Indianapolis and Washington. Both sides are flawed in their own ways and not among the title contenders.

What gets Tampa Bay the most marginal of nods is the spread available with some bookmakers - seven points is much more attractive than six and a half points when one is siding with an outsider - its head-to-head record versus Minnesota and its ability to keep games close on the scoreboard.

The Buccaneers have beaten the Vikings five times in a row, including a 24-20 away victory near the beginning of last term in which they fought back from trailing 0-17 at half time to take the lead with just 31 seconds remaining.

And even though Tampa Bay has been defeated by Dallas, New Orleans, New York and Washington this season, it has not gone down by greater than a touchdown despite being the underdog for four of its six matches and receiving nine points for its road games versus the Cowboys and the Giants.

Buccaneers quarterback Josh Freeman playing much more like the 2010 version than the 2011 one and that is good news for the Florida-based team, with their offence starting to fire in recent weeks. They seem to have more weapons than their opponents, who are reliant on running back Adrian Peterson because quarterback Christian Ponder is very hit and miss.

Tampa Bay`s weakness is its pass defence but Minnesota may not be able to expose it with Ponder so out of sorts. He completed only one throw in the second half of his side`s 21-14 home victory over Arizona in which every statistic known to man favoured the team that lost the match.

The Buccaneers have one of the best rushing defences in the National Football League, ranking third in the competition with an average concession of 76 yards per game. They are well equipped to deal with the threat that Peterson poses and force Ponder to chance his arm that he may not trust.

Just because a match is on television does not make it a must-bet proposition and one would not be rushing to back either Tampa Bay or the Vikings if their clash was one of several on a busy Sunday schedule. The Buccaneers are the value play only for the most compulsive of punters.

Go To bet365

#Ad

24/10/2012     © Frixo 2024