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Jeremy Perry
Titans vs. Buccaneers Point Spread: NFL Pre-Season Week 2 Odds, Prediction
Tennessee absolutely crushed their former offensive coordinator Arthur Smith and the Atlanta Falcons in their opening game, winning 23-3. The Buccaneers didn’t have nearly as good of a performance as the reigning champions were struck down 19-14 at their home stadium by the Cincinnati Bengals. Seven of those 14 points were off of an interception with their offense barely putting together anything. Let’s take a deeper look at this matchup and see who has the upper hand.
NFL Point Spread and Betting Analysis
The Titans are 0-2 in their second preseason games ever since Mike Vrabel joined the staff as the head coach. The group hopes to finally flip the script on those woes and pick up a strong win against Tampa Bay here. Vrabel has coached this team to a 3-6 record in the preseason but is 3-2 in the past five matchups.
Meanwhile, Bruce Arians is 12-14 in his preseason career as a head coach. Since becoming the head man of the Buccaneers, he has gone 3-2. Similar to Vrabel, Arians hasn’t had much Week 2 success in the preseason, coaching his rosters to a 2-4 record overall.
Tennessee Titans
We may not be seeing much of the Titans star power in this preseason matchup. The team suffered numerous injuries across both sides of the ball and may opt to keep out their starters in this one. Ryan Tannehill, Julio Jones, Derrick Henry and A.J. Brown all missed last contest and are on track to miss this one against the reigning champions. We will likely be getting a heavy dose of Logan Whiteside and Matt Barkley running the offense instead.
At running back, we saw their backup Darrynton Evans go down with a knee injury early on in their first preseason affair. His status is still up in the air but should leave the door wide open for the veteran Brian Hill to get some meaningful reps. Tennessee has admitted that they want to focus primarily on their defense in this matchup, getting both of their rookies in Caleb Farley and Elijah Molden extended time on the field.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Buccaneers didn’t perform very well in that preseason opener against the Cincinnati Bengals. Tom Brady and the majority of the starters saw about one drive apiece before all the backups stepped into the game. Blaine Gabbert, Ryan Griffin and Kyle Trask all split the remainder of the contest and had mixed results. The offense only averaged 2.8 yards per play, with just 29 yards rushing. Griffin was intercepted twice in this matchup and Trask completed just four of his 15 pass attempts.
Ke’Shawn Vaughn took 11 carries for 27 yards and a touchdown but was truly the only bright spot for this offense. Bruce Arians has all but confirmed that these backups will carry the load for the second straight week, especially after Brady got sacked early on in his lone drive.
TEN
TB