Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Washington Redskins

Written by Steve Janus

This Sunday the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will look to keep their slim playoff hopes alive when they go on the road to take on the struggling Washington Redskins. The Buccaneers let another close game slip away, as they blew a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter in a 28-24 loss to the Atlanta Falcons. The Redskins were blown 31-7 by the New York Giants, and have now lost four of their last five games, and are all but eliminated from the playoff picture. If you are thinking about betting on the game this weekend, the current NFL odds have the Buccaneers favored by 2.5-points over the Redskins.

Tampa Bay (7-5): It’s not going to be easy for the Bucs to make the playoffs, as they likely will have to win their final four games and then get some help on top of that, as they are currently chasing the Giants/Eagles, Packers, and Saints for two wild card spots.

It really looked as though the Buccaneers were going to come away with a big time win over the Falcons last week, but just as Tampa scored to make it 24-14, the Falcons returned the ensuing kickoff 102 yards and you just had that feeling that they were going to find a way to lose this game. The biggest thing for Tampa Bay is to put that game behind them, and simply focus on beating the Redskins this week.

Josh Freeman didn’t have his best day throwing the football, as he completed just 19 of 38 for 181 yards with a touchdown and one interception, but you can almost count on him bouncing back with a big game this week, especially against the Redskins 29th ranked pass defense.

LaGarrette Blount rushed for 103 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries, and he too should have a big game against the Redsksins, as the come into the game allowing 137 yards a game on the ground.

Washington (5-7): The Redskins are a complete mess right now, and its hard to imagine them turning it around in the final for games of the season. Head coach Mike Shanahan just suspended Albert Haynesworth for the rest of the season. While I agree with the move to let get Haynesworth out of the lockerroom, it won’t change how this team plays in the final four games.

Offensively the Redskins rely heavily on the arm of Donovan McNabb, as they average just 89 yards a game on the ground. The problem is the Redskins don’t have that much talent around McNabb for him to succeed. Receivers routinely drop balls, and they just don’t have the playmakers like McNabb had in Philly. Last week the Redskins simply killed themselves, as they turned it over six times, including four lost fumbles.

It will be interesting to see if the Redskins defense gets any better now that they got rid of Haynesworth. I don’t think it will. This team doesn’t know how to tackle, and you can’t blame that on the play of one guy. The secondary will make a play or two, but more times than not they are getting burnt for a big play.

Looking at the Odds: I think this is pretty simple, take the Buccaneers to win this week. This team is young and even though there playoff hopes were pretty much crushed last week, they will continue to fight till the final game. The Redskins on the other hand look more like a team that just wants the season to be over, as they had such high expectations this year when they traded for McNabb. My final score prediction is Tampa Bay 27, Washington 20.

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