Week 13’s Monday Night Football contest is an interesting divisional battle where the 5-6 Tampa Bay Buccaneers will host the 4-8 New Orleans Saints. The Bucs currently lead that division, so despite the Saints’ poor record, they are still in the hunt for a playoff spot. This game will go a long way toward clearing up the NFC South race and it should be a fun one. Here are our best bets for this crucial Monday Night feature.
Saints @ Buccaneers spread pick: Tampa Bay -3.5
Maybe it’s stubborn, but we refuse to believe the Bucs won’t bounce back. They have been inconsistent all season and last week, they blew a winnable game to the Cleveland Browns. The Bucs’ play isn’t giving anyone a lot of confidence but this is a get-right game for them. They should lock down a poor Saints offense and while the Saints’ defense has been pretty solid, the Bucs have enough playmakers to exploit them. Guys like Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and of course, Tom Brady should give the Bucs enough of a boost to come away from this game with a big win.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers -3.5
Anytime Touchdown Scorer Markets
Evans is in the midst of his worst season in recent memory. But he’s still getting open. Evans only has three touchdowns this season but he had at least 13 in the past two seasons. Evans is still Brady’s favorite target and his reception total is in line with his totals from past seasons. He simply isn’t getting in the endzone. We expect that to change in the coming weeks and at +150, it’s worth a bet in this battle.
Mike Evans Anytime Touchdown
While Juwan Johnson had zero catches last week, this line is still too low. The Saints tight end has emerged as Andy Dalton’s favorite redzone target and has five touchdowns over his past six games. While he doesn’t get a lot of targets, he has a knack for the endzone and this line is ridiculously high considering his recent touchdown success.
