Tampa Bay Bucs at Denver Broncos Betting Results & Recap
Written October 5, 2008 by Jack Jones
Final: Broncos 16, Bucs 13
It wasn’t a pretty game for either team, but the Denver Broncos will gladly take the 16-13 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to move them to 4-1 on the year. The loss drops Tampa Bay to 3-2 and one game back of the Carolina Panthers in the NFC South. If you wanted to bet on this game, you should try out BetUS where you can get up to 145% in signup bonuses on your first deposit.
Offensively Jay Cutler led the Broncos with 227 yards and a touchdown on 23-of-34 passing. Brandon Stokley was his top target with six catches for 52 yards and the touchdown, while tight end Tony Scheffler added 65 yards with his four receptions. There wasn’t much going for the ground game, as former-Buc Michael Pittman ended up with 39 yards.
Brian Griese was 13-for-19 for 88 yards against his former team before having to leave the game with a shoulder injury. Jeff Garcia made his first appearance since Week 1 and was an efficient 13-for-17 for 93 yards and a touchdown, but he did have one interception. The touchdown was throw to Ike Hillard, who ended the day with four catches. Warrick Dunn had 74 rushing yards while Earnest Graham added 59.
The game was tied up at 6-6 at the half as Matt Prater and Matt Bryant took turns kicking field goals. The Broncos were the next to draw blood when Cutler threw a 10 yard touchdown pass to Stokley with just under six minutes to play in the third quarter.
Things were rusty when Garcia first came in to replace Griese. The team went three-and-out after two false start penalties.
Denver then ate up the clock with a 14-play drive that ended with 27-yard field goal by Prater, which was his third of the game to go up 16-6 with 12:24 to play.
The next drive Tampa Bay caught themselves a fairly nice break. Garcia was intercepted by defensive lineman Marcus Thomas, but he proceeded the fumble the ball back and Tampa recovered at their own 12. That would have been sure to add points to the Denver score if he had just held onto the ball. While that drive stalled, Garcia hit Hilliard from seven yards to score their only touchdown with just over two minutes on the clock.
Rather than going for the onside kick, the Bucs kicked off deep and Denver was able to run out the clock with two first downs on the drive.
If you had Denver -3.5 with the NFL odds then you were probably a little disappointed by the late Tampa Bay score. For help with betting on the NFL take a look at what our handicappers are offering next week as their NFL expert picks will help you win more bets.