Week 16 of NFL Sunday Night Football takes place in Dallas, where the Cowboys are set to host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Two teams with completely different ambitions heading down the stretch. Do the Cowboys have what it takes to play spoiler down the stretch, or are the Buccaneers scrappy enough to go on a run?
The Cowboys have failed to live up to preseason expectations. Their strength would be their 12th rank pass offense and it ends there. Combined with the 27th rank run offense, they are averaging 21.3 ppg. That is not nearly enough points when combined with their 30th rank scoring defense at 27.1 ppg. Quarterback Cooper Rush hasn’t played terribly since coming in for injured quarterback Dak Prescott, but the mediocre offense has not been enough to make up for the defense.
Tampa Bay comes into this week looking to stay atop the NFC South with a one-game lead on the Atlanta Falcons. The Buccaneers offense has been on a roll lately, averaging 31.3 ppg over the last three. Their defense has been the weakness this season, but even that has been improved as of late, allowing 17.7 ppg over the last three. The Buccaneers may just be getting hot at the perfect time.
Bodog has the Cowboys as +4.0 point underdogs at the time of writing this article. The Buccaneers are certainly on the better run as of late, winning four in a row with an average scoring margin of +16.0 over that stretch. The Cowboys defense will have to put up an unexpected performance if they want to cover that spread.
Howe Fresh
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