Publisher & Bucs Beat Writer Scott Reynolds
I think the Falcons will beat the Bucs, yet I feel like Tampa Bay will win in Atlanta. What a conundrum. Are the 1-4 Falcons a good football team? No, but they are better than their record would indicate. Atlanta is 1-2 at home this year, but one loss came against one-loss New Orleans in overtime by six points, and another came to a one-loss Cincinnati team by one point. The Falcons’ lone home win came against one-loss Carolina, too. With two losses in a row, the Bucs are trending the wrong way. Has the bye week allowed the Tampa Bay coaching staff the time to identify the team’s weaknesses and correct mistakes?

Both the Falcons and the Bucs are coming off drubbings in their last game. For Tampa Bay it was a 48-10 loss at Chicago two weeks ago. For Atlanta, it was a 41-17 defeat in Pittsburgh. The Steelers used a balanced attack to beat the Falcons with Ben Roethlisberger throwing for 250 yards and three touchdowns, while James Connor rushed for 110 yards and two touchdowns. The Falcons’ rush defense is among the league’s worst (25th – 121.4 avg.) and might be the perfect tonic for what ails Tampa Bay’s 30th-ranked running game (69.5 avg.). Jameis Winston, who gets his first start of the year in a place where he is 2-0 as a starter, thrives as a play-action passer, but the Bucs will need to have a credible run game for it to achieve maximum effectiveness and create one-on-one opportunities downfield.

Falcons WR Julio Jones – Photo by: Getty Images

If you have room to start both Mike Evans and Julio Jones on your fantasy team – do so. Jones has feasted on the Bucs over the past two years with 27 catches for 484 yards and four touchdowns over the last four games, including a 12-catch, 253-yard, four-touchdown performance in a 34-20 win last year at Atlanta. Evans has put up similar numbers in the last four games against the Falcons with 27 catches for 406 yards and three touchdowns, including an 11-catch, 150-yard, two-touchdown game on Thursday Night Football in 2016. But I think rookie Calvin Ridley, whose six touchdowns leads all NFL receivers, in the slot will determine the outcome of this game. Rookie nickel cornerback M.J. Stewart doesn’t have the speed to hang with either Ridley or Jones and that is the difference in this game.

Expect a high-scoring shootout with Evans and tight end Cam Brate having a big day working the middle of the field where the Falcons have lost middle linebacker Deion Jones and both safeties Keanu Neal and Ricardo Allen to injuries, but a Winston interception and a Matt Bryant field goal could prove to be the difference.

Reynolds’ Score Prediction: Falcons 34, Buccaneers 31
Reynolds’ Pick-To-Click: TE Cameron Brate

Editor & Bucs Writer Mark Cook
Everyone is expecting a high scoring affair on Sunday, and why not? Both teams were blown out by their opponents last game, as both team’s defenses are a disaster. The only saving grace for both teams is their offenses can put up big numbers and can usually keep them in games.

This is a huge game for both teams as the Saints look like they want to run away with the division. And without a significant injury or two, the Saints most likely finish the season with 12 wins or maybe even more. If the Falcons lose, they drop to 1-5 and the season is basically lost. The Bucs will still be breathing with a loss, but on life support if they want to win the NFC South.

So with the expectation for a wild shootout it will probably end up being a lower scoring affair, right? That’s how these things usually workout. Well probably not this game.

Unless the Bucs defense all of a sudden get their act together and the young secondary grows up, it us hard to imagine the Falcons not scoring at least 30 points. The Bucs offense is more than capable of matching the Falcons score for score and I believe the team that ends up getting the most sacks, and giving up the least, will win. This game will most likely be won or lost based on turnovers, so a sack-fumble here or an opportunistic interception there, will be the difference. That will come from pressure.  The question is, what team can force the other team’s offense to make the critical error?

Give me the Bucs in a tight one, with kicker Chandler Catanzaro being the difference late.

Cook’s Score Prediction:Buccaneers 31, Falcons 28
Cook’s Pick-To-Click: DeSean Jackson

Bucs Beat Reporter Trevor Sikkema 
The Buccaneers are at quite the crossroads here. They have a chance to either take step once again in the right direction, more towards the direction they were going in their first two weeks of the season, or they could fall back into the Tampa Bay trap that Bucs fans have lived in for the better part of the last decade.

On paper, the Bucs have everything going for them to come out with a win this Sunday. First, they’re coming off the Bye Week and have had extra time to not only prepare but also heal up. Second, the Falcons are banged up on defense in the worst way. You could argue that the two most vital parts of the Falcons’ defense are Keanu Neal and Deion Jones, and both of those players are out for the year. Third, Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston loves playing in Atlanta. He treats it like a homecoming growing up just about an hour away from the city, and that is evident in his undefeated record against the Falcons.

However, I cannot in all good consciousness allow that to cloud my remembering of this defense looking as lost as it possible could have in Chicago, and not much being different between now and then.

The Bucs offense had to play perfect to out-duel the Saints in a shootout in New Orleans, and anything less than perfect against the Falcons will likely end up in them losing a high scoring battle. The pass rush for the Buccaneers to try to trip the Falcons offense up a bit is going to be the key. Defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul’s pressure off the edge has been very needed for this Tampa Bay defense so far in 2018, and it will have to be called upon again against the Falcons — perhaps even more than it ever has, to this point.

Ultimately, after watching what I watched in Chicago, this team will have to prove it to me for me to pick them again.

Sikkema’s Score Prediction: Falcons 42, Buccaneers 37
Sikkema’s Pick-To-Click: Bucs DE Jason Pierre-Paul

Pewter Report Intern Matt Matera
The fifth game of the year might be the game that dictates where the Bucs season is headed in terms of being in playoff contention. Tampa Bay is fresh off a bye week, but there are questions still looming on both sides of the ball. It’s time to put up or shut up for many players on Sunday.

Mike Smith’s defense will look to right all the wrongs from their catastrophe against the Chicago Bears, but going against the Falcons offense especially in Atlanta makes me think there will be a similar dismantling like we saw in Tampa’s last game. At least they get Beau Allen back to solidify the defensive line.

Jameis Winston will be making his first start of the 2018 season after playing in the second half in Chicago. Winston is 2-0 in Atlanta, and he really enjoys playing there since it’s about an hour away from his hometown of Bessemer, Alabama. Winston considers it a home game.

If there’s any team to get your opening start against, it would be the depleted Atlanta Falcons defense. Expect to see plenty of Cameron Brate and Adam Humphries, as they have always had some great chemistry with Winston.

On the note of chemistry, I’m concerned that the deep ball connection that Ryan Fitzpatrick had with DeSean Jackson will not be there now that Jameis Winston is quarterback. They weren’t on the same page last year, and a three week suspension won’t help either. Jackson’s threat down the field was crucial to the Bucs success during their first three games.

There is just something about playing in a dome that makes a game feel like a track meet. It definitely feels like that this week with the way both defenses are playing. We will finally get to see what adjustments Tampa’s defense makes, and what players get moved along the depth chart. A couple of players mentioned that it was more of a communication problem that lead to blown coverages, this week gives them a chance to prove that was the case, or that the secondary just can’t hang. Keep in mind that they once again might be limited in the secondary with Carlton Davis and Jordan Whitehead limping around on Friday’s practice, so they could be down more after showing faulty coverage.

Many have discussed how Jameis Winston looked great in preseason and has turned a corner in progression as a quarterback. I’m not willing to buy it just yet until he actually proves it. He has always been a guy that is very susceptible to turning the ball over and I don’t expect that to change in one week.

He even threw two interceptions in one half of football against the Bears, though one wasn’t his fault. Until Jameis can show that he can take better care of the ball, I’m just not ready to trust that he can win in a shootout over the Falcons. We will get the high scoring that we expect, but it could be one or two turnovers by Winston that gives the Falcons this game.

Matera’s Score Prediction: Falcons 41 Bucs 33
Matera’s Pick-To-Click: Cameron Brate