Both the Houston Texans and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 1-2 this preseason, and it looks to me like the Houston Texans are going to want this one a little bit more.
With almost all of the nation’s football attention turning to college football, not too many people will be giving much thought to the Houston Texans facing off against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this Friday night.
But the preseason must come to a close to give way to the regular season, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers look to be pretty vulnerable for a loss.
With Byron Leftwich winning the starting job and Luke McCown locking up the backup spot behind him, all eyes in Tampa Bay are now on the position battle for the third string between this year’s first round pick Josh Freeman and last year’s fifth round pick Josh Johnson. Reports are that these two players will see all of the snaps on Friday night, which doesn’t exactly instill a ton of confidence that Tampa Bay will be doing much scoring.
Matt Schaub will sit out for the Texans, which will leave the snaps in tonight’s game to be divvied out among Dan Orlovsky, Rex Grossman, and Alex Brink. Certainly not an all-star cast either, but Orlovsky and Grossman have real starting experience, and should be able to navigate their way through a second and third string NFL defense.
Both teams come into tonight’s game at 1-2 both moneyline and against the spread.
In resting both his starter and his backup quarterback, new Tampa Bay Coach Raheem Morris is making it clear that he’s more concerned with getting things right for the regular season than he is “ending the preseason on a high note”.
After two disappointing losses at home this preseason, I think Houston goes out looking for the win this week. Last season Houston entered the regular season off of two straight preseason losses and proceeded to go 0-4 in their first four games. Ending the preseason strong might mean more to the Texans.
The Pick: Houston Texans ML +135