Are the Buccaneers really as good as they’ve looked? What about the Steelers? Are they as bad and undisciplined as the product they have displayed thus far?
Because something just isn’t quite adding up.
You’ve got a 2-0 team playing at home, who opened the year by whooping the Saints on the road. Then Tampa knocked off the defending Super Bowl champs fairly convincingly- in a game where Ryan Fitzpatrick looked like a zoned-in Tom Brady.
On the other hand, you’ve got the Steelers, who got punked in their own building in Week 2, allowing Patrick Mahomes to come in and play as if he was being defended by a high school team’s practice squad.
Le’Veon Bell’s still MIA, and it looks like Mike Tomlin is losing control of this locker room more and more as the days wear on. The future seems somewhat clouded and unclear as his squad enters this Week 3 contest.
I plan on breaking down how I envision tonight’s Monday Night Football game playing out, but I’d first like to take a hard look at each team individually.
To get a full understanding of what’s going to take place on the gridiron this evening, we need to know what each team’s strengths and weaknesses are, as well as how they’ll be going about trying to put points up on the board.
Being that “Fitzmagic” and the Bucs have taken the NFL world by storm, I’ll start with tonight’s home team.
My, my, my.
Who would have thunk it?
I mean, a road game in the Big Easy followed by a game against the Philadelphia Eagles- this team should most definitely have started out 0-2.
Quite frankly, I expected the “Fire Dirk Koetter” chants to be in full bloom by now.
But astonishingly enough and to the surprise of just about everyone associated with the NFL, here the Bucs are, sitting at 2-0.
Even more impressive is what Ryan Fitzpatrick has done. Here’s a 35-year-old guy who was just supposed to be a “3-week stop-gap” while Jameis Winston served his suspension, but instead, he’s out there leading the NFL in passing yards and QB rating through two weeks.
Mike Evans has already hauled in 17 balls, and DeSean Jackson has reincarnated himself into the big-play threat he once was, as evidenced by his performance early on. After catching a pair of long touchdown passes in the opening game, Jackson lit up his former team in Week 2 on the very first play from scrimmage, scoring on a 75-yard bomb.
While the Bucs offense is undoubtedly flourishing under the guidance of Ryan Fitzpatrick, their defense still has plenty of question marks.
Their secondary has allowed tons of big plays, as they have been unable to put teams away when given big leads. Eventually, this offense is going to come back down to Earth, and the defense will need to step up and make some key stops.
If and when that happens remains to be seen, but I promise you that “Fitzy” won’t keep this Tom Brady impersonation thing up for the whole year. But there’s one big question to ask right now.
Can he keep it up tonight at home against a restless Steelers squad?
To help answer that question, let’s dive in and take a look at the mess going on in the Steel City.
Another Sunday is in the books, and while some teams found some answers yesterday, the Steelers are still searching.
When is Le’Veon Bell going to come back and rescue this team? Does All-Pro WR Antonio Brown really want out? Does Big Ben have enough left in the tank to right the ship and get this franchise back on track?
Honestly, these are all great questions, and ones that Mike Tomlin certainly doesn’t have the answers to right now or they wouldn’t be in this position. So if the head coach of the football team doesn’t even have a grip on his own locker room, how can an NFL writer like myself add his two cents?
Quite simply, the Steelers appear to be all over the place. We’ve seen offensive lineman go back and forth at the drop of a hat. First they’re calling Bell out, only to then rescind their comments and pledge their support for their talented RB a day or two later.
When the team stepped onto Heinz Field their last time out, either they were disinterested and unprepared, or they just really lack skill on the defensive side of the ball.
Either way, it’s not a good recipe moving forward if you are trying to win games in the National Football League. Their schedule won’t get much easier as the year progresses, and now teams have seen how much this unit can be exposed.
With all that being said, I have seen this team get on hot streaks before. It’s not entirely impossible that they find a way to win 10 games and end up clinching an AFC North title, but they sure better start figuring things out ASAP.
I can’t imagine Pittsburgh trying to plow James Conner through a Bucs front 7 that includes the likes of Gerald McCoy and Lavonte David, as Tampa’s rushing defense has been stout in the early going.
It’s more likely we see Roethlisberger try and exploit the defensive backfield by utilizing JuJu Smith-Schuster on the outside, combined with a steady dosage of Antonio Brown carving up the middle of the field.
But can they do it on the road in what promises to be a raucous and exciting atmosphere?
Let’s find out.
Again, to someone who has been watching the first two weeks in the NFL closely, it might seem odd that the undefeated team playing at home is the underdog against a team who has yet to record a victory.
Not only does it not make much sense at first glance,but it sounds downright blasphemous.
Apparently, bookies such as BetOnline aren’t letting recency bias overtake the overall perceptions of these two franchises heading into the season, as everyone swore that the Steelers were SB contenders. On the same token, the Bucs were supposed to be among the 3 or 4 worst teams in the entire league.
So when you take into account what was supposed to be happening with what is actually taking place, Vegas says that the Steelers should be favored by 1.5 points.
It’s up to you which side you want to take.
To be truthful, it’s hard to tell which Steelers team will show up tonight. Will they finally get focused and come out and play like we all know they are capable of playing? Or will it be the same disgruntled and disconnected team that has taken the field in each of the first two weeks?
Neither of these defenses has looked even remotely competent, and both of these quarterbacks love to get out and sling the ball around the field.So I’d assume the average fan is going to be pounding the over.
Actually I don’t even have to assume.
Based on the popular iOdds app, a whopping 76% of the bets placed on the over/under so far have come in on the over. That explains why it opened at 52.5 and surged to 53.5 by Friday morning. Who knows?It could even approach 55 by kickoff tonight based on where things are going.
Well, if you know me, you know this.If the general public is heavy on one side, I’ll typically be looking to buy stock in the other.
I’ve stated that Ryan Fitzpatrick will start slowing down and eventually look like the decrepit quarterback he has been for the past three years.
Remember, from 2015-2017 while in New York and Tampa, Fitzy completed just 58.4% of his passes while averaging a paltry 214.4 yards per game.
The Steelers defense was utterly embarrassed against the Chiefs in their last game, and I can’t help but think that defensive coordinator Keith Butler is out to exact some revenge.
The fact that pulling the trigger on the over seems so automatic here, and it’s the thing that most will be doing, I’m going to take the under and hope that my premonition about the Buccaneers offense slowing down comes true.
It’ll take essentially a dual-sided shootout for this game to get to 54 points, which is what will need to occur for bettors who take the over to collect on their ticket. I see plenty of scenarios of that not happening, so I’ll be on the side who is rooting for an ugly-looking slugfest!
Handicapping football games is no easy task, or more people would quit their day jobs.
All you can do is consider all the information and data you have in front of you and weigh out both sides of the argument. The great news for you is that I love dissecting intriguing NFL matchups, and I’ll be releasing a Monday Night pick for the rest of the season.
Hopefully, you gain some insight and enjoy what I provide, but when it comes to actually placing the bet…
That part is still up to you!
BetOnline is one of the premier NFL betting sites out there, and it’s waiting for your action right now. I’ll be back on Wednesday to recap all of Week 3’s action, but until then, enjoy tonight’s festivities!
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