Kansas City Chiefs at Tampa Bay Buccaneers Betting Preview
Even though they are both still Super Bowl contenders, both the Kansas City Chiefs (2-1) and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2-1) have some work today heading into their Sunday night meeting at Raymond James Stadium. Each squad is looking for a bounce back after their first losses of the season last Sunday.
Kansas City looks a bit more ‘fixable’ as they may have just had a bad game in last week’s 20-17 loss at Indianapolis to a Colts team that was in a must-win situation.
Tampa Bay has fought tooth and nail in both of their wins and then finally falling 14-12 to Green Bay last week. Oddsmakers still have the Bucs as -1 point home favorites in this spot.
Chiefs Should Be Alright
You could tell it was a trap game for Kansas City last week, just -4.5 favorites against an Indianapolis team that had just been shut out 24-0 in Jacksonville the week prior.
Sure enough, the Chiefs had their worst offensive outing to date, with Patrick Mahomes going 20/35 for 262 with 1/1 against an Indianapolis defense that Trevor Lawrence absolutely shredded in week two.
Do we get the Chiefs offense from the first two weeks as they went 2-0 and averaged 35.5 ppg, or the one from last week that struggled on the road?
Tampa Bay doesn’t have any concerns with their defense that is allowing just 9.0 ppg, so Kansas City could very well roll out another dud. Surprisingly enough, it could be the Chiefs’ defense that leads them to a win here because the Bucs’ offense isn’t intimidating anybody right now.
K.C. held the Colts to 87 yards rushing on 26 carries, and Indianapolis only had 177 yards passing, so it’s still somewhat baffling that the Chiefs lost that game last week.
Can Brady Get Right?
The Buccaneers can best be described as just a weird team. They’ve won 19-3 over Dallas, 20-10 over New Orleans, and then falling 14-12 to the Packers last week when a game-tying two-point conversion fell incomplete with under 0:15 seconds left. Those are three ugly outings, and you really wouldn’t know the Bucs are 2-1 the way the national narrative has been spinning.
Tom Brady has had his struggles in the past, but he’s always found a way to get back to his hall-of-fame self – but he also wasn’t 45 back then. Brady was 31/42 for 271 yards and a TD, which aren’t bad numbers considering he was missing Chris Godwin (hamstring) and Mike Evans (suspension), but Tampa Bay is still struggling to score.
Chiefs at Buccaneers Pick and Prediction
If Brady and the Tampa Bay offense could figure things out, we’d have a whole different outlook on this Bucs team because the defense is playing championship-caliber football right now.
Any time you can hold Aaron Rodgers and the Packers to 14 points, that’s usually good enough to get the win, so last week’s loss is on the Bucs’ offense.
Kansas City could only muster 17 points in Indianapolis last week, and now they have a second straight tough road contest against what looks to be a better defense. Have to give the edge to the Bucs here in another ugly contest.
Pick: Buccaneers -1
