Buccaneers at Raiders: Five Bold Predictions

James Yarcho defended his crown last week with another correct prediction, but Evan Winter also joined in on the fun with a correct bold prediction of his own.

Can James make it a three-peat? Can Evan nail his fourth bold prediction of the season? Will any of the other guys every get anything right?

Let’s find out in this week’s bold predictions.

Bailey: The Raiders’ offense is pretty impressive. Derek Carr and Josh Jacobs have that unit rolling this season, as it’s averaging 30.2 points per game. That’s the sixth-best mark in the NFL right now, but Las Vegas isn’t touching that this Sunday, not against this Bucs defense. In fact, I don’t think the Raiders come close. Tampa Bay will hold them to just 14 points and in doing so, it will have kept back-to-back opponents under 17 points for the first time since 2010. They went back-to-back three separate times that season.

David: Three of the last four times the Raiders, Buccaneers, and Jon Gruden all shared a football field there has been a defensive touchdown. Let’s keep the trend rolling as Antoine Winfield Jr. gets his first career interception and takes it back for a pick-six. For good measure, Lavonte David or Devin White are scoring too. Because what’s better than a linebacker scoring a touchdown against the Raiders in the year of Super Bowl 55?

Evan: The Bucs have won back-to-back games against teams with winning records just once since 2009. That was against the Chiefs and Seahawks back in 2016. Not only is this a bold prediction, but it’s also a game prediction: The Bucs will beat the Raiders and win back-to-back games against opponents with winning records for just the second time in over a decade. And not just win, but win by at least 20 points again.

James: This Raiders team may have a tough task ahead with starting offensive linemen out against a ferocious Bucs pass rush, but I want to talk about the Bucs offense instead. This is the week we see something from this offense we have yet to see this season - and what better place to do it than Vegas? We are going to see touchdown receptions from Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and Rob Gronkowski - just like hitting on a slot machine.

Jason: Last week we finally got to see Gronk score his first touchdown as a Buccaneer. As exciting as that was, there was nothing more exciting than seeing the Bucs go penalty free! As I’m sure you can understand, it’s really difficult to go penalty free. So, I don’t think they’ll strike gold twice, but I’m going bold and predicting they’ll still keep it under 3 penalties against Gruden’s Raiders.

Editor’s Pick by Gil Arcia: Legit, I like all five of these predictions. However, I like the fact that David is leaning on the rook scoring a pick-six. Winfield, Jr. is coming into his own and adding the cherry on top with linebackers getting in on that action? Can’t get more bold than that.