NFL Football Betting: Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Los Angeles Rams

By BetOnline September 26, 2019

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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers let a game slip away this past weekend when they allowed Daniel Jones and the New York Giants to come back from 18 points down in the second half to earn the win. Now they’ll have to go on the road to face the Los Angeles Rams, who are 3-0 and are still the favorite to win NFC. The Rams are the biggest home favorite of the week. Can they win and cover in this spot?

TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS AT LOS ANGELES RAMS
NFL ODDS: RAMS -10
NFL TOTAL: 50.5

WHY THE BUCS WILL COVER THE SPREAD

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers might be 1-2, but they have been very competitive in every game they have played. A loss to the San Francisco 49ers was a one-score game in the final minutes until Jameis Winston threw a pick-six to the 49ers. In Week 2, Tampa Bay stopped the Carolina Panthers at the 1-yard line to win by six points. In Week 3, the Bucs’ fate wasn’t known until a game-ending missed field goal sealed a one-point loss to the New York Giants. They’ve been competitive but the flipside of looking at this is that they just aren’t very good. The Giants aren’t a great team and the Panthers played with a quarterback who was injured.

The other issue here is that Tampa Bay simply doesn’t travel well. They have won just three of their last 17 road games. Their win at Carolina was their first in eight road games and Winston had a 12-game road losing streak before that. That’s not a good sign.

The issue is Winston just can’t stop with the turnovers. He has five touchdowns and five turnovers in three games this season. He’s mostly played well the last two weeks but he’s had a number of turnover-worthy plays that could have really altered the game. If he keeps those up, the Bucs won’t have much of a shot here.

WHY THE RAMS WILL COVER THE SPREAD

This is a game where the Rams offense should get right. They’ve been good but not explosive just yet but Tampa Bay seems like the ideal opponent to get things going. The Bucs are allowing 25.7 points per game this season, which is 22nd in the NFL. Keep in mind that they’ve faced a rookie quarterback making his first NFL start and a quarterback with a Lisfranc foot injury in back-to-back weeks. How are they going to look against the Rams, who have one of the best offenses in the NFC?

One of the issues with the Bucs road struggles is that they simply don’t run the ball very well. They actually had a good rushing week last week with 144 yards on 32 carries but still managed to lose. In Weeks 1 and 2, they had 100 yards rushing or less. It’s hard to see them going on the road and finding a way to win if they can’t run the ball effectively.,

TAKING A LOOK AT THE TOTAL

The Rams should get the win here but I’m not expecting a high-scoring affair. It’s important to note that the Rams play the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday – a division rival – and they might have their eye on that game. Beyond that, Jared Goff just hasn’t looked quite crisp so far this season. This could be the game where he gets right but I still expect a rather muted scoreline.