Monday Night Football: Saints at Buccaneers

John's Best Play

Oh Brady, Oh Humanity!

It’s like the Old Man and the Sea. Weather battered and beaten up this season, the senior citizen quarterback goes out to sea again in one last effort to defy time. Reminiscent of Captain Ahab with one peg leg and a band of castoffs, drunks, has-beens, misfits and never weres —Brady is in search of that great white whale called a division crown.

He needs a win. Bad. Smashing iPads on the sidelines has not proved to be the antidote to losing football games. The Bucs are 5-6 and at times look pathetic.

Standing in his way on MNF is a rebuilding Saints team whose red-headed quarterback, Andy Dalton, never made it big with the Bungles and now plays mop-up placeholder until New Orleans drafts a future.

Bruce Arians knew this day would come. That’s why he got out.

Yesterday, at the postgame press conference, after getting drubbed in Philadelphia, Titans head coach Mike Vrable said his club was at a crossroads. Prophetic words indeed.

The same can be said of this game for Tampa Bay. A loss at home to a division bottom feeder may end the Bucs hopes of a late resurgence.

I’m going with the Ahab bunch to beat the sea one last time tonight on national television.

Jack's Best Play

Follow the Trends

I'm a trends man. While I take into account advanced analytics, injuries, traditional stats, and the weather, I like to rely on the trends for many of my picks. They can sometimes catch you in a confirmation bias, but they often work out. (Except for the Vrable underdog trend yesterday. Yikes.)

This game is begging you to take the under. Neither the Saints not the Bucs play very fast. The Bucs rushing defense is one of the best in the league and the passing defense should have little problem with Andy Dalton. Without Jameis Winston, the Saints have been forced to rely on the Dennis Allen defense to stay in games. Andy Dalton should struggle tonight, as he is want to do in primetime.

Dennis Allen's defense confused Tomy Brady in Week 2 and I don't expect much deviation from that in their second matchup in Tampa.

The UNDER is 4-1 in the last 5 Saints games. The Bucs are 7-0 in hitting the UNDER in their last 7 games against NFC opponents. The game should be ugly and, barring a ton of turnovers, the UNDER should hit. Neither team can cover a spread to save their life. Take the UNDER and be glad you did.