Enemy Intel: Falcons writers expecting victory

Expectations have played a lot into why the fan bases for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons have been mostly frustrated throughout the 2019 NFL season.

Coming off another disappointing performance, Bucs fans are not confident coming into this weekend’s match-up against another division rival. However, the Falcons enter the game on a two-game NFC South winning streak, and are looking to make it three in a row with a home win against the Buccaneers.

Will it happen? The staff at falcoholic.com seem to think so, going as far as to call Tampa Bay the, “..bumbling Bucs”. Strong talk from a staff covering a fellow 3-7 team. Kind of like Miles Morales calling Peter Parker small.

Moving on. In their staff picks, both Matt Chambers and Dave Choate predict Falcons victories, albeit in different ways.

Chambers sees a final score of 34-12, so either yay for Matt Gay fantasy owners who get four field goals out of it. Or boo for the same crowd who get no field goals and two missed extra points. He doesn’t really write about how he thinks the twelve (shout out to Chris Godwin) points will come about, but he probably doesn’t want to jinx the Falcons defense who come into the game having not allowed a touchdown in ten quarters of play.

Choate gives the Bucs a little more credit, allowing them to score 21 points while still losing by a margin of ten points.

“I can’t talk myself out of this one. The Bucs are a mess again, with Jameis Winston tossing picks left and right and a pass defense that couldn’t stop a stiff breeze,” Choate wrote “The Falcons are playing well enough to beat just about anybody, and at home against the Bucs this should be lopsided. Allowing for some divisional variance, I still have the Falcons winning their third straight.”

Earlier this week, the same writer also wrote however that Winston’s history against the Falcons shouldn’t be ignored,

“Winston’s flaws are legion and well known at this point. He throws far too many picks (107 touchdowns versus 76 interceptions and counting in his career), is sloppy with the football, and tends to cancel out his legitimately impressive games with turnovers. Except against the Falcons. Winston’s splits against Atlanta are comically good, especially compared to how he fares against literally every other opponent.”

So, not a lot of respect coming from the other side of things thus far. Not that a 3-7 Buccaneers squad should be expecting a whole lot of it at this point.

Still, the game isn’t played by writers, and ultimately it’ll be the players who determine how the Week 12 contest between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Atlanta Falcons, plays out.