In Week 12, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be playing against the Baltimore Ravens.
This will really be an interesting game. The Bucs have won seven games and will take a giant step forward if they beat the Ravens.
Tampa Bay’s Head Coach Raheem Morris has pushed the Bucs to become one of the better teams in the NFL, especially with their great QB, Josh Freeman.
Freeman led the young Bucs to a shutout victory last week over the 49ers, 21-0, for their first win in Candlestick Park in 30 years.
LeGarrette Blount and Cadillac Williams, runningbacks for the Bucs, also gave and continue to give great performances, but on a whole, their offensive line is just not good enough to beat the Ravens.
Tampa Bay will most likely be overwhelmed by the Ravens’ solid defense, led by the unforgiving Haloti Ngata.
The Ravens will most likely win the game, because of their dominating defense as opposed to the Bucs’ offense.
The Ravens will be more determined to win this game, being at home, and knowing that they have to continue to win to keep up with the Steelers, with whom they are fighting for the AFC North crown.
Although the Bucs have a good record, they are still a young team and currently going through the process of becoming a better team, like the Ravens.
In this game, the teams have to come out to show who is better, obviously the Ravens, because of their defensive line.
However, the Bucs will most likely put up a tremendous fight in trying to defeat them.
The Ravens might also want to remember to shutout the Bucs as soon as possible. Freeman, who is in his second year as a starting QB, has six comeback victories in the fourth quarter.
According to ESPN, the Bucs have a 25.1% chance of winning, while the Ravens have a majority 74.6%.
The Bucs are 22nd in the league in passing yards with an average of 207.2 yards per game, while the Ravens are 15th with an average 231.6 yards. So the Ravens will likely out-pass the Bucs.
However, the Bucs outscore the Ravens in rushing yards by about 1.2 yards per game. The Bucs are rated at number 12 in the league with 117.8 rushing yards per game, while the Ravens are ranked 13th with 116.6 average
rushing yards.
Tampa Bay also allows lower opposition passing yards than Baltimore, ranked as sixth overall, allowing an average 200.8 passing yards per game. The Ravens are ranked tenth, allowing an average 210.0 yards.
But the main factor is Baltimore’s rushing defense, led by Ngata. The Ravens are ranked 9th in the league in allowing the lowest number of rushing yards with 101.8 yards per game. The Bucs are ranked 29th
in allowing 136.5 rushing yards.
Since 2001, Baltimore and Tampa Bay have gone head-to-head three times. With one shutout game for each team, the Bucs still lead 2-1, but the score will most likely be evened out on Sunday, at 2-2.
However, it will most likely be a roulette game for both teams, since the Ravens are a good team overall and the Bucs have gotten a lot better recently. The Ravens have won three of their last five games, while the Bucs’ have lost
only one. Both teams lost to the Falcons, and the Ravens’ second loss was to the Patriots, who have yet to play the Bucs.
ESPN’s AccuScore predicts the Ravens to have a score of around 27 points, with the Bucs losing with about 18 points.
FOX Sports’ WhatIfSports predicts that it will be a much closer game, with the Ravens winning, 20-19.
Fans, on the other hand, have a different opinion. The Bucs have 49% of the vote while the Ravens earned 42%.
However, all of these predictions and opinions are useless if either team has a bad day or an exceptionally good one.
Only time will tell, with the game looming closer at M&T Bank Stadium on November 28.
Stay tuned!
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