Pewter Pirate Predictions: Week Two – Buccaneers vs Texans

This week the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are the prime time game on Monday Night Football. They will travel to Houston to play the Texans, who are also widely expected to win their division. It should be a good test for this Bucs team.

The Texans are 2.5 point favorites in this game, but I don’t see it that way. I see a few clear advantages for the Bucs where they should be able to capitalize. Here are my week two Pewter Pirate Predictions.

Sack Attack

The Texans offensive line is not a strength of this team. They traded their star left tackle in the offseason and early on the results are what you might expect. Going against the Buccaneers defensive line is a mismatch in the Bucs favor.

There is no reason that this pass rush shouldn’t be very disruptive on Monday. Especially considering that the Texans will be missing their starting center which will likely take things from bad to worse.

I’m looking for 5+ sacks in this game. Look for big days from Calijah Kancey, Vita Vea, Haason Reddick and Yaya Diaby. No reason to think they don’t all get in on the fun at some point in this game.

Not Scared of Nico

There are many who believe that Texans wide receiver Nico Collins is one of the ten best wide receivers in the NFL today. Some would even say that he’s better than Mike Evans. I am obviously not one of those people.

While Collins is a good player, I don’t view him as a top tier star in the league today. His career highs of 1,297 yards and 8 touchdowns are impressive, but not something that a true star like Mike Evans hasn’t done consistently. Collins has been anything but consistent with his production.

This is reflected in his performance last week. He was held to just 25 yards on three catches against a good Los Angeles Rams defense. I’m sure he’ll be more productive than that this week, but don’t be shocked if he’s held to under 50 yards in this game.

Run It Back Emeka

The heavyweight fight in this game will be Mike Evans vs Derek Stingley. Two top five players at their position going toe to toe against each other. This will also very likely include help from a safety because of the caliber of stat that Evans is and the fact that he is incredibly effective against one on one coverage.

This means that someone else will have to step up to help drive the offense. With Godwin out, Evans is the established star and will be the focal point of the defense. Opponents will force someone else to beat them until proven otherwise. 

We saw this last week with the explosion of Emeka Egbuka. The rookie had a pair of touchdowns in his NFL debut, in large part because Evans drew so much attention away from him. I look for that trend to continue this week and believe that Egbuka will find the end zone yet again.

Score 

This will be a tough game for the Bucs. They have injuries along their offensive line and a new offensive coordinator who is still finding his groove. I expect a fairly low scoring game where a few splash plays could make all the difference.

Prediction

Buccaneers – 20
Texans – 16