2005 Tampa Bay Buccaneers NFL Handicapping Review

 

By Tom Wilkinson

 

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers fall from Super Bowl champion to back-to-back losers has still caught many in the sports handicapping community off guard. The year following their championship, Tampa finished 7-9 both straight up and against the sports betting odds, which 6 failures in their last 9 games against the online sports betting websites and sportsbooks. 2004 was no better and sports betting players wagering on a Tampa Bay comeback had their bankrolls blown out in no time.

Tampa Bay blew their first three games both straight up and against the sports betting odds to start the 2004 campaign. Combined with their lackluster finish in 2003 this gave the Bucs a 3-9 mark against the sports betting line over the two seasons. The one bright spot regarding this dry spell was that enough members of the sports handicapping community gave up on Tampa Bay to at last give them some much needed sports betting value. In fact, many online sports betting websites were featuring posts of enraged Buc backers who vowed to start putting Tampa Bay’s opponents on their lists of football picks.

After being abandoned by the general sports betting public the Bucs lost only one of their next five games against the sports betting odds. They then split their next two games against the sportsbooks and online sports betting websites as the headed into the season’s final quarter with a record of 5-7 straight up and 5-6-1 against the sports betting odds. Incredibly, Tampa Bay had an outside shot at the playoffs in the diluted NFC.

After an impressive 27-0 win over the surging Atlanta Falcons as 1.5-point favorites some in the sports handicapping community were willing to give the Bucs a second shot for their final stretch drive of four games. Unfortunately just as the sports betting public was willing to forgive and forget the pain that Tampa Bay had caused them at the end of 2003 and start of 2004, Tampa Bay went right back into the tank by losing their last four games both straight up and against the sports betting odds.

Tampa Bay has been a horrible road team since the middle of the 2003 season, with a disgraceful 2-11 mark against the sports betting odds as a visitor. Equally disturbing is the fact that they have beaten the online sports betting websites and sportsbooks just twice in their last 11 games as a dog, which is a direct indictment against coach Jon Gruden.