The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Houston Texans face off on Saturday In Week 3 of the NFL preseason at NRG Stadium.
There aren’t many expectations surrounding this Houston Texans team heading into the season but they have played well during the preseason. In the first game against the Green Bay Packers, Houston was able to win 26-7 and in the last game against the Dallas Cowboys, the Texans were able to win 20-14. In the last game rookie Davis Mills got most of the playing time under center completing 10 of his 16 passes for 115 yards, zero touchdowns, and zero interceptions. The defense for this Texans team has also been pretty good, and if they want to get the job done in this game, it’s going to need to be the defense that finds some success.
On the other side of this matchup is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who have not found a lot of success. In the last game against the Tennessee Titans the offense only scored three points while their defense gave up 34 points and that led to the 28 point defeat. Kyle Trask had some up and down under center for the Buccaneers in the last game throwing for 131 yards, zero touchdowns, and two interceptions. The turnovers have been an issue for the Buccaneers and they need to be better in this game.
The Buccaneers are 1-9-1 against the spread in their last 11 games played on Saturday. The Texans are 4-1 against the spread in their last five games played as an underdog. The over is 5-2 in Buccaneers' last 7 games as a favorite. The under is 5-1 in Texans last 6 games as an underdog. The home team is 3-1-1 against the spread in the last five meetings played between the two teams.
If this was a regular-season the Buccaneers would be the play, but this is the preseason and it doesn’t seem the Bucs care too much about winning. Look for the Bucs offense to struggle and that will lead to Houston covering the spread. In terms of the total, the Bucs lack of scoring is going to keep this game under the total.
AUTHOR: Shane Mickle
Mitch's Take...
