Atlanta Falcons @ Tampa Bay Buccs: A trio of players to support in the side markets

Mike Carlson
18 December 2017

A TD in each half for Matt Ryan?

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Atlanta can edge towards a playoff spot with a win in Florida in the final game of the week, says Mike Carlson...

"The Bucs' Peyton Barber at 2/1 to score a TD is tempting and I like Barber over 44.5 rush yards at 5/6."

One of my favourite quotes, which I have probably used here before, is screenwriter William Goldman's famous dictum about Hollywood: 'nobody knows anything'.

It's true too of the NFL: if there are only three people (two former and one current heads of officiating) who understand what they say a catch is supposed to be, how are the rest of us supposed to figure the game? By now you've probably seen or heard about the Steelers' un-touchdown at the end of the Pats' game, which preserved a three-point push if you followed Friday's column.

It's not that the call was wrong, but the strict rabbinical parsing of the NFL's rules. It was that the rule defies common sense. Not so long ago, on a similar kind of call against the Jets, I heard Mike Pereira, one of the two former heads of officiating who now man the Fox TV COMMAND CENTER (their attitude toward the NFL hierarchy is roughly the same as Fox News' toward the Republican Party) say that if 48 guys in a bar think a call is correct, then it's correct. Well, how about 17 million viewers last night? I think rather than having all calls reviewed in the NFL offices on Park Avenue, the league ought to set up a voting system in a bar on the West Side, and put those 48 guys to a vote whenever there's a close call.

Anyway, so far I've been wrong about only two games straight up this week, and I would have been sitting pretty here had the Rams not decided they would try to puncture the over/under in Seattle all by themselves. Jimmy G and the Niners did their thing: he's still undefeated as an NFL starter.

Tonight Atlanta can take advantage of the Seahawks' loss to move closer to a wild card playoff berth if they can win in Tampa. They're giving the home dog Bucs 6.5 points, at 20/21, which is probably just about right. I'd be willing to risk their doing a bit better than that. It was 34-20 when the teams met over Thanksgiving weekend in Atlanta, though the Bucs made a fight of it late; the over/under is 48.5 and I'd be more tempted by the under at 20/23, but I'm not crazy about taking either way this week.

The Bucs' Peyton Barber at 2/1 to score a TD is tempting and I like Barber over 44.5 rush yards at 5/6. I'm a little intrigued by Matt Ryan to throw a TD pass in each half, at 5/2, and his counterpart Jameis Winston to have over 22.5 completions at 5/6.