NFL Week 8 starts with Baltimore Ravens vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday Night Football at 8:15pm ET on Amazon Prime and our NFL expert Clevta has a best bet and predictions for the game.
Clevta’s Baltimore Ravens vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers best bet: Buccaneers +1.5 (+100)
Buccaneers +1.5 (+100) available at PointsBet Sportsbook at time of publishing.
It's incredible that we see a Tom Brady-led team as home underdogs with no injury issues. Both of these teams have been a bit of a disappointment this year and the Bucs are coming off inexplicable back-to-back losses as double-digit favorites. Tampa comes into this game sitting 20th in EPA on offense and 6th on defense. Contrary to popular belief, Brady has been fine this season. The Bucs are 11th in pass offense based on EPA, and Brady is 6th in PFF grade and 16th in completion percentage over expected. He has done that with a beaten up offensive line and wide r eceiver corps.
He isn't playing at his typical MVP level right now, but he is still very good. The issue is pass blocking, the run game and the horrific play calling. The Bucs have the worst rushing offense in the NFL and rank 30th on early-down runs. Brady is 6th in early-down passing, so they clearly need to do more of that and less of the run-up-the-middle stuff.