Will the Denver Broncos cover the spread against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers week 13?

On Sunday afternoon the AFC West Division leader Denver Broncos, with 8 wins and 3 losses meet the NFC South second place Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tampa is currently at 6 and 5, and need a win Sunday in their race to try and qualify for a wild card spot in the playoffs.

Based upon a number of factors including the remaining schedule that Tampa has the rest of the season, they are thought to be one of the favorites vying for the spot. Even with a loss on Sunday Tampa actually has a really good shot at making the playoffs since time and circumstance, as well as their schedules, may work against such teams as Dallas, Washington and a few others. A lot is at stake in a number of divisions this week.

However, let’s concentrate on Sunday’s game since they must first face a formidable opponent in the Denver Broncos. If you look at the line, the odds makers have the Broncos as 8 point favorites to win over the Buccaneers. With an 8 point spread you can be sure the sports bookies are confident which team they think will come out on top.

When I am looking at which football teams I want to bet on, I try and look deeper than just the numbers. I look at it logically and try not to let my emotions sway my judgment too much, although being human, sometimes you just can’t help it and emotions will sometimes affect your wagering decisions.

Do I honestly think the Broncos will win on Sunday? Yes I do, and short of Denver making huge mistakes in the first half or Tampa pulling out a few really big plays that give them points early in the game, I think we will see Denver in the lead by the end of the first half.

And even if they do not have a comfortable first half lead, the Broncos have had many games this year when they were down by considerable points at half time and they turned the game around in their favor in the second half, but I feel that may not be necessary in this game.

But will the Broncos be able to cover the point spread against the Buccaneers?

Let’s look a little closer to see what may happen and how it could affect scoring in this game. On Tampa’s offense you have a great young quarterback in Josh Freeman in his fourth year.

Throwing at 57% this year, his numbers have been presentable as far as receptions, but when he does throw an interception, it seems like it couldn’t be at a worse possible time. But then any quarterback will tell you it’s never a good time when they throw an interception.

And going up against the Broncos, Freeman will be facing a defense ranked 4th in the league. He can be sure that they will be applying a lot of pressure and try to get him on the move early in the game. They will keep heavy coverage on his receivers Vincent Jackson and Mike Williams as well as tight end Dallas Clark as well.

The Denver defense will likely make their offensive line wake up and pay attention early in the game and I wouldn’t be surprised if they even manage to get a sack on Freeman even on their first possession. With line backers like Von Miller with 14 sacks for the year or defensive ends like Elvis Dumervil with 8 and 18 assists they will be doing everything they can to force Freeman into making mistakes and hurrying up his throws.

Tampa does have a bit of a running game, but I think that the defensive line is ready to shut down their running game. Don’t forget that we could easily see a big play or two by Kevin Vickerson, Derek Wolfe, Rahim Moore or so many others.

You can not even mention a game with the Denver Broncos without talking about their offense. At he forefront of that offense is one of the best quarterbacks in the league, Peyton Manning. Watching this man play football, especially when he is having a good day is a lot of fun.

It would not surprise one bit to see him throw for 300 yards or more on Sunday. In addition to his talent as a passer, he is extremely intelligent and reads a defense better than just about any quarterback in the game. He can run a great no huddle or hurry up offense and has shown he can take advantage of that ability and keep defenses guessing or calling an audible at the line of scrimmage.

Even though most of the sports betting shops we checked with, both on line as well as the brick and mortar sportsbooks, have the spread on this football game at 8 points; I think the Denver Broncos should have no trouble covering the spread against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

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