The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints are two of the best teams in the NFL. Their quarterbacks, Tom Brady and Drew Brees, are two of the best in football history.
Those facts, plus the primetime Sunday night slot, should lead to one of the biggest Sunday nights of the year at sportsbooks.
This will probably be the heaviest-bet game of the weekend, not only because of the primetime spot but the matchup,” said Johnny Avello, the director of race and sportsbook operations for DraftKings, to Casino.org. “It’s just a great matchup. We’ve had some not-so-good matchups on Sunday nights and Monday nights. This is a good one.”
The Buccaneers were 3.5-point favorites as of midday Sunday, down from as high as 5.5 earlier in the week. At FanDuel, the Bucs have 60 percent of the spread money, but the Saints have 57 percent of the moneyline.
Plentiful Points?
While this is the highest-scoring season in NFL history in terms of points (5,996) and touchdowns (692) through eight weeks, points are not the expectation in this game, even with the prolific quarterbacks.
In fact, the total has crashed. At DraftKings, it started at 54.5, but was down to 50.5 at midday Sunday. It was the same trend at FanDuel. The betting was mixed, with 82 percent of the bets on the over, but practically a 50/50 split on the money at FanDuel.
“I would expect that number will probably go up before game time,” Avello said.
This game caps a huge Sunday. For only the fifth time since 1970, there are at least three games between teams with two-or-fewer losses in Week 9 or later in the season.
Trading Records
The quarterbacks are legends, with Brady’s six Super Bowl rings and Brees’ long list of NFL records. One record that has shifted in Brady’s direction is career touchdown passes. With 20 this season, Brady is up to 561 career touchdown passes. That’s one more than Brees, who has only 13 this season.
“Every time they throw a touchdown pass, they break the other guy’s record,” Avello said.
The Saints won the Week 1 game 34-23. Both quarterbacks threw two touchdowns in that game, but the Saints picked off Brady twice.
Tampa Bay is rolling, though. With six wins in its last seven games, it has moved onto the short list of prime Super Bowl contenders. At BetMGM, the Bucs are +650, behind only the Kansas City Chiefs (+350) and Pittsburgh Steelers (+600).
Tampa Bay recently added troubled receiver Antonio Brown to the roster, and he’ll make his debut.
At PointsBet, his over/under is 39.5 yards. At BetMGM, a Brown touchdown and a Bucs victory is +170. At DraftKings, he is +150 to score a touchdown.
Following the off-season acquisition of Brady, the Buccaneers are the biggest championship liability for sportsbooks.
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