Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. New Orleans Saints NFL Week 8 Betting Odds, Picks, and Preview

Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. New Orleans Saints NFL Week 8 Betting Odds, Picks, and Preview

The marquee NFL betting matchup in Sunday’s late afternoon window this week features a pair of NFC South Division rivals. Plenty will be on the line when it comes to the division standings when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hit the road to face the New Orleans Saints. The two teams have combined to win 10 of 13 games played so far this season. One could argue that they have taken very different paths in getting off to their respective strong starts. Oddsmakers have tabbed the visitors as a fairly hefty favorite ahead of this divisional showdown.

Buccaneers vs. Saints Week 8 NFL Betting Odds, Picks, and Preview

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-1 SU, 3-4 ATS) vs. New Orleans Saints (4-2 SU, 3-3 ATS)

Date: Sunday, October 31, 2021Start Time: 4:25 PM ESTLocation: Caesars Superdome — New Orleans, LATV Coverage: FOX

Buccaneers vs. Saints Betting Odds

Tampa Bay Buccaneers Preview

As many NFL betting analysts expected, the Buccaneers took it to the Chicago Bears in a big way last week. Tampa Bay used a three-touchdown first quarter to build an early lead and never looked back en route to a dominant 38-3 victory. The reigning Super Bowl champs improved to 6-1 on the season. However, they have only covered three out of seven-point spreads to date. Last week was certainly one of them. Tom Brady achieved yet another career milestone last Sunday by throwing his 600th touchdown pass. The ensuing process of obtaining that football after Mike Evans mistakenly gave it to a fan was far more interesting than the on-field game against the Bears itself.

Brady continues to put up monster stats this season. Considering how loaded the offense is around him, it comes as no surprise. That 600th career TD pass was one of four he had on the day last week. Leonard Fournette continues to have a clamp on the lead role in the Bucs’ backfield. He piled up another 81 yards rushing and found the end zone in last week’s blowout win. Even without Antonio Brown, the Buccaneers had no trouble in the receiving game. Mike Evans and Chris Godwin tore apart the Chicago defense. While Tampa figures to be in for a stiffer challenge going up against a very strong Saints D this week, no one has had much of an answer for the Buccaneers’ attack so far this season.

New Orleans Saints Preview

The weather conditions certainly weren’t great for the Saints’ road contest last Monday night against the Seattle Seahawks. In hindsight, the rain and wind played right into Seattle’s hands of needing to turn the game into an ugly one. Despite questionable play-calling and failure to score down in the red zone, the Saints did pull out a tightly-contested victory. Settling for a field goal did prevent New Orleans from covering the NFL betting point spread as road favorites though. This week sees the Saints catching a fairly hefty number at home against a Buccaneers outfit that they defeated twice last year. Not only that, but the Saints took it to the World Champs in both regular-season meetings. Unfortunately, Tampa Bay got the last laugh with a playoff win in the Superdome.

Jameis Winston hasn’t been superb by any stretch of the imagination in his first season as the Saints’ starting quarterback. However, much like he did last week in Seattle, he also has avoided making the critical mistakes that he was known for while in Tampa Bay. Winston complemented his 222 passing yards with 40 on the ground last week. Alvin Kamara was once again the focal point offensively. He scored the Saints’ only touchdown and finished with nearly 180 yards of total offense. 128 of those came as a receiver out of the backfield. Will the Bucs’ defense allow New Orleans to feed Kamara 30 touches in Sunday’s NFL betting matchup? Keep an eye on wideout Michael Thomas’ status ahead of this game. There is a widespread belief that he will make his season debut in this high-stakes divisional battle.

Buccaneers vs. Saints Betting Odds and Line Movement

The following table displays the best Buccaneers vs Saints NFL betting odds and lines available in the market.

Buccaneers vs. Saints Betting Odds

An astounding 82% of tickets are laying the points with Tampa Bay as the road favorite in this game. While this line did originally move up after opening at Buccaneers -4, we are starting to see buy-back on New Orleans across the betting market. While a few Las Vegas shops are lingering at -6, several have already moved back down to a 5.5-point spread.

On the flip side, the total for this Buccaneers vs Saints contest has held steady all week long. The current over/under line of 50 is the same exact number that this game opened with. It is interesting to see the swell of support for Tampa Bay given the recent NFL betting trends in this rivalry. The Saints have won five of the last six head-to-head meetings outright and have an identical 5-1 ATS record in those games.

Buccaneers vs. Saints Betting Picks and Prediction

For as impressive as the Buccaneers have been so far this season, laying such a hefty point spread on the road in a divisional game is hardly ever a good idea. Kudos to the swaths of public bettors who are doing just that this week I guess. We certainly won’t be joining them. After a very lackluster performance in a game that saw them forced to battle the weather as much as the Seahawks, the Saints set up as a brilliant contrarian home dog this week.

While the Bucs have won six of their first seven games, the fact that they have only covered three out of four point spreads suggests a general overvaluing of the defending champs by the NFL betting market. Furthermore, Tampa Bay will likely be without Antonio Brown again this week after he appeared on crutches at Wednesday’s practice. While that blow will be lessened a bit by the expected return of tight end Rob Gronkowski, the Saints figure to counter with Michael Thomas. What will Jameis Winston and the passing game look like now that he will finally have a legitimate threat at wide receiver? They certainly will have a chance to make a statement right away against the vulnerable Buccaneers secondary.

Buccaneers vs. Saints NFL Betting Picks: Saints +5.5 (+100)