Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. New York Giants Betting Pick

Betting Odds

Opening Line: Giants -7.5
Over/Under: 43.5

Time: 1 PM EST Sunday September 16, 2012 on FOX

After a terrible 2011 season the Bucs got off to a good start with a win in their opening game, but while they did win their pass offense and defense struggled, which is why they are over a TD underdog on the road facing the Giants. The Giants played in the first game of this NFL season and at home there were not very impressive in losing to the Dallas Cowboys.

Yeah, it is early in the season, but with the Eagles, Cowboys, and Redskins all at 1-0 a loss would put the G-Man in a big 0-2 hole right of the bat.

In their opening games the Bucs beat the Carolina Panthers 16-10 while the Giants lost to the Dallas Cowboys 24-17.

The Giants are 0-1 ATS with an O/U record of 0-1 and the Bucs are 1-0 ATS with an O/U record of 0-1.

Josh Freeman threw an early QB pass in the Carolina win and the defense did not of the rest. He only passed for 138 yards with that 1 TD, but one good sign for Tampa Bay is that he was not picked off and the INT killed Freeman last season. The Giants gave up 290 passing yards to the Cowboys and while they had the league's best pass rush last season they only had 2 sacks in the Dallas loss.

Rookie RB Doug Martin had a good first game rushing for 95 yards averaging 4 yards per carry. The Giants MUST play better run defense than they did last week when they allowed Dallas RB DeMarco Murray to rush for 131 yards.

While Eli Manning has a good WR corps he only passed for 213 yards with 1 TD and 0 INT in the loss to Dallas. He was under pressure the whole night and the Bucs and their pass rush has to come after the 2-time Super Bowl winning MVP. The Bucs' pass defense did come up with 2 picks in the win over Carolina, but they still allowed Cam Newton to pass for 303 yards. The Bucs totally dominated the Panthers' rushing offense only allowing a grand total of 10 rushing yards in the game. That is not a good sign for the Giants since they only rushed for 82 yards in their season opener. RB Ahmad Bradshaw rushed for 78 yards, but 33 of those yards came on 1 scamper. The G-Men were high on first round pick RB David Wilson, but he only had 2 carries for 4 yards last week.

The Bucs are 0-4 ATS vs. a team with a losing record, 0-4 ATS in their last 4 road games, and they have an Over record of 4-1 in their last 5 road games.

The Giants are 8-0 ATS vs. a team with a winning record, 6-1 ATS in their last 7 games, and they have an Under record of 4-0 in their last 4 home games.

ATS Game Pick

The Bucs defense looked real fast last week flying all over the field. If they duplicate that performance this week in the Meadowlands they will make the Giants one dimensional on offense. NYG's offensive line is not an upper level pass blocking unit and need to have some success in the running game to buy Manning more time. Carolina had a net 10 yards rushing last week versus Tamap Bay and I don't see the Giants putting up much bigger numbers in Week 2.
Take Tampa Bay +7.5