Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Arizona Cardinals NFL Free Picks for Week 8

The Bucs haven’t exactly played a rough schedule this season, and save the upset at the Cincinnati Bengals, they have won the games they’re supposed to compete in and have gotten killed in the games they were supposed to lose. QB Josh Freeman is getting better with every passing week, and the Tampa Bay faithful has seen him lead two game winning touchdown drives on the season late in games now. The drive last week was a thing of beauty to beat the St. Louis Rams, and it was capped by a 30 yard laser to WR Mike Williams to setup the game winning 1 yard TD plunge. This unit still isn’t putting up pretty numbers on the year, as 16.3 points per game is still third to last in the NFL and 307.5 yards per game in total is only good enough for No. 23. However, the defense is doing just enough, holding three foes to 17 points or less, while holding the Bengals to 21 points. Surprisingly, Tampa Bay has won and covered four straight games on the road dating back to last season, and that could very reasonably continue this weekend in the desert.

If you want to talk about a team that is generating just zero offense this year though, you have to look straight at the Cards. Needless to say, especially with QB Max Hall calling the shots, this offense has been terrible. The unit only has two offensive touchdowns to speak of since Hall became the starting quarterback, and the only reason that the team has continued to win games is because the defense scored three times against the New Orleans Saints. Hall has only thrown for 289 yards and has been picked off three times without a TD pass, but this is a familiar trend. It appears that losing QB Kurt Warner really did mean that much to this offense, as the unit ranks dead last in the NFL at 237.8 yards per game in total and has only found the end zone six times offensively for the duration of the year. The ‘D’ and special teams have the team’s other four TDs. The defense hasn’t exactly been stellar either, though things really haven’t been that bad save two road games in Atlanta and San Diego when the Redbirds allowed 41 points in each game. The ‘D’ ranks No. 27 in the league in total defense (368.7 YPG) and No. 28 in scoring (26.7 YPG).

The Bucs just keep finding ways to win games this year, and though Arizona has been a tough home team, we just don’t see it sticking around in this division with an offense that is this bad. We love our Buc Ball, and that’s what will carry Tampa Bay to an upset in the desert.