NFL Underdog Pick: Week 13
November 29th 2008
by Special K

New Orleans Saints (+3.5) at Tampa Bay Buccaneers   

The Saints season is on the line as they travel to play Tampa Bay this Sunday.  The Saints are coming off a win against the Green Bay Packers in which they scored a team record 51 points.  Even though Tampa Bay has the 2nd ranked pass defense, I look for the Saints to build off this recent momentum and really put the pressure on Garcia and Tampa Bay's offense to put up a lot of points. 

What I like most about the Saints lately is that they have finally found a running back in Pierre Thomas that can gain some positive yardage on 3rd down and short.  This was a huge trouble spot during the year for this team. 

Turnovers will ultimately decide the outcome of this contest.  If the Saints can avoid the costly turnovers against the Bucs, they should be able to win this game outright.  However, all you have to do is just look back to last season when the Saints tried to be cute with a reverse late in the game and fumbled away the victory.

Finally, recent trends have also shown to take the road team and the underdog in this series.  I'll take that extra 1/2 point as I can't see the Buccaneers winning this this game by more than 3 points if they come out on top. 

Take the Saints and the points