Dallas Cowboys (12-5) vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (8-9)
January 16, 2023 8:15 pm EDT
The Line: Tampa Bay Buccaneers +3 / Dallas Cowboys -3; Over/Under: +44.5
(Get latest betting odds)
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Dallas Cowboys do battle Monday in the NFL NFC Wild Card round from Raymond James Stadium.
The Dallas Cowboys enter as the #5 seed after going 12-5 in the regular season. Dak Prescott has thrown for 2,860 yards, 23 touchdowns and 15 interceptions on 66.2% passing while Tony Pollard leads the Cowboys in rushing with 1,007 rushing yards and 9 touchdowns and Ezekiel Elliott has 876 rushing yards with 12 TDs as well. CeeDee Lamb leads Dallas’ receiving group with 107 grabs for 1,359 yards with 9 touchdowns while Noah Brown and Dalton Schultz each have 500+ receiving yards as well this season. On defense, Donovan Wilson has a team-high 101 total tackles while Micah Parsons has a team-high 13.5 sacks this season.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers come in as the NFC South Champions after an 8-9 mark last season. Tom Brady has thrown for 4,694 yards, 25 touchdowns and 9 interceptions on 66.8% passing while Leonard Fournette has a team-high 668 rushing yards this season. Mike Evans also has a team-high 1,124 receiving yards and 6 touchdowns while Chris Godwin has 1,023 receiving yards and Leonard Fournette has 523 receiving yards and 3 TDs as well this season. On defense, Dein White and Lavonte David each have 124 total tackles with White logging 5.5 sacks this season.
Dallas is 0-4 ATS in their last 4 playoff games and 0-3-1 ATS in their last 4 games against a team with a losing record while the over is 5-2 in their last 7 games overall. Tampa Bay is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games against a team with a winning record and 3-12-1 ATS in their last 16 games overall while the under is 15-5 in their last 20 games against the NFC.
I get the case to be made for either side in this game, but I’m backing Tampa Bay here. I still don’t trust the Cowboys to wake up and put forth their best effort to make it out of the wild card round for the first time in a while, but as bad as Tampa Bay’s been, they still have Tom Brady leading the offense and he’s fully capable of leading the Pats to a win so I’ll side with the Bucs here.
