NFL Picks Week 13: Carolina Panthers at Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Carolina Panthers at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Sunday, 12/4/11, 1:00 PM EST, TV: FOX
Opening Point Spread: Carolina -3.5
Current Betting Line: Carolina -3
Opening Total: 48
Current Total: 47
Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker

The Carolina Panthers haven't won back-to-back games since the end of the 2009 regular season

Carolina snapped a three-game losing streak by handing the Indianapolis Colts a 27-19 loss as 3.5-point road favorites last week. Panthers first-year head coach Ron Rivera was impressed in how his team finished down the stretch in that contest, but the team hasn’t won back-to-back games since closing out the 2009 regular season with three consecutive wins. “The opportunity is to do something that we haven’t done,” stated Rivera. “We’ll approach it one Sunday at a time.” Carolina is 3-3 ATS as an underdog this season and the ‘over’ is 5-1 in that particular situation.

The Panthers running game has built some momentum since the start of the season in getting use to rookie quarterback Cam Newton, rushing for over the century mark in at least the past nine games, coming off a season-high 201 yards last week. Newton has certainly opened up the rushing lanes in sitting just 647 yards behind Peyton Manning’s rookie record in 1998 of 3,739 passing yards. Carolina will definitely have some opportunity to throw the football, facing a defense that allows 254.9 yards per game through the air and given up 19 touchdown passes in 11 games.

Tampa Bay has lost five straight games since upsetting the New Orleans Saints as six-point home underdogs on Oct. 16. The Buccaneers have been out-gained in six of their last seven games. Third-year head coach Raheem Morris is starting to hear things around the area about potentially losing his job at the end of the year. “I am not an insurance salesman,” stated Morris in fielding the question this week. “We coach football.” The defense has been a disaster this year in giving up 394.6 yards per game, ranking 31st in the league. Tampa Bay is 5-14 ATS at home the last two-plus years.

The Buccaneers have been absolutely horrendous in trying to stop the run, which has been magnified by suffering injuries to defensive tackle Gerald McCoy for the season and Brian Price being limited by an ankle injury. Offensively, quarterback Josh Freeman is suffering through a forgettable campaign, leading to the unit already committing four more turnovers than a year ago. He is listed as probable with a shoulder injury that was suffered in the final moments of last week’s 23-17 loss to the Tennessee Titans as three-point road underdogs.