Painter Takes Over as Colts visit Bucs

Frank Doyle looks at tonight’s Monday Night Football matchup, where the Bucs have a big number to cover against what’s left of the Colts.

The Colts showed some signs of life last Sunday night against the Steelers, although the Steelers are showing more and more signs of rust right now. After being humiliated by Houston and beaten by the Browns, the Colts defense came out to play and gave Indy its first NFL betting cover of the 2011 NFL. A long way from Indy’s glory, but that’s what life without Peyton is going be like. The sooner the Colts adjust to smaller goals, the better they’re all going to feel about it.

And adjusting is exactly what the Colts are doing. After being deers in the Texans’ and Browns’ headlights for the first two weeks of the season the Colts stripped down their game plan against the Steelers and it worked. Kind of.

The Colts were able to bring the heat against Roethlisberger and that shaky Steeler offensive line, while Curtis Painter was an improvement on Kerry Collins when Collins got hurt. Of course, drinking malt liquor is technically an improvement on drinking rubbing alcohol but in the NFL, as in life, all things are relative.

Kerry Collins is now out with concussion so Painter been’s named starter for tonight with Dan Orlovsky his back backup.

Painter, who’s thrown thirteen passes, total, in his three years in the NFL, matches up badly against the Bucs’ Josh Freeman, one of the up and coming quarterbacks in the League. Just because Freeman hasn’t been setting the world on fire so far this year doesn’t mean he won’t. The Colts defense is hit by injuries in the secondary, with Gary Brackett and Melvin Bullitt – what a great name for a football player – going on the DL during the week.

Freeman has the weapons to take advantage of that, while Painter will be faced with a much tougher prospect against the Tampa Bay D than he saw last Sunday night. While the Steelers defense is old and tired, the Buccaneers are young and eager, and they’ll want to make some noise on Monday Night Football.

The Bucs are eleven point favorites, and that’s a big number to cover. But although the Buccaneer offense isn’t explosive like Green Bay’s or New England’s, the Buccaneers can get scores from both sides of the ball, especially if they can get in Curtis Painter’s face and bother him. Tampa Bay is a good bet to win and cover, and heap more misery on the Colts.