Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Atlanta Falcons Betting Preview – NFL Week 15, 2020

The Bucs can move to within one of the NFC South leaders, New Orleans with a win here which will heap pressure on the Saints as they take on the Chiefs later on in the day.

Both teams come into this match in a similar vein of form having won two of their last five matches each.

The Falcons own the head to head record against the Bucs having won six of the last seven matches between the two teams. However the Bucs won the last game at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Tampa Bay are overwhelming favorites despite the recent form of both sides being similar and the fact that the Falcons seem to raise their game against the Buccaneers. The odds look a bit too short for the Bucs so let’s see if we can find some value elsewhere.

The Bucs ended a run of three defeats from four matches with a much-needed win against the Vikings last time out. Prior to that they lost by identical score lines (27-24) to both the Chiefs and the Rams.

On the road Tampa Bay has been better lately having won four of their last five games, which includes the last three in a row.

Despite relatively low yardage gained per game (366), the Bucs have still managed to average over 28 points per game this season. That low yardage gain isn’t helped by the fact that they are averaging less than 100 rushing yards per game. Oddly enough Ronald Jones has still managed to amass 900 rushing yards per game, the fourth-highest in the league.

Defensively Devin White has been a stand-out for the Bucs having recorded the fifth-highest amount of tackles this year. However coach Bruce Arian will be hoping that his defense can add to their low number of sacks made this season. He will also want to reduce the pass completion rate against them as there are only three sides who have higher percentages in the NFL. They do boast the least amount of rushing yards conceded this year by over 100 yards.

The Falcons have little to play for other than trying to fend off Carolina to avoid finishing bottom of the NFC South division.

After losing their first five matches Atlanta had started to pick up midway through the season putting together a run of four wins from six games but they have since lost their last two.

They have been poor at home winning just two of their seven matches, however both wins came in their last three matches.

Like the Bucs the Falcons have not run the ball much this season and they too average less than 100 yards gained per game. This is probably because they have Matt Ryan as their quarterback. This is being billed as the battle of the quarterbacks as Ryan takes on Brady.

Another similar comparison between the two is that the Falcons are allowing their opponents to complete their passing at 69% as well. They need to tighten things up defensively as they have currently allowed the third-highest amount of passing yards against them.

One thing they are doing well is forcing fumbles as they have the third-highest amount in the league.

The Bucs need to win this to keep their divisional title hopes alive and have hopefully shaken off the rust by beating the Vikings last time out. However given they haven’t been in sparkling form recently I can’t be overly confident that they will cover the spread. I previously said that the odds on the Bucs to win offered little value but as I always say it’s better to have a short-priced winner than a long odds loser.