The New York Giants will host Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday Night Football tonight as 12.5 point underdogs.  The Buccaneers defense has stepped up recently and is now the leading defense in the NFC South, meaning that not only must the Giants overcome their old foe Brady, but they must also score points against a stout defense.  The NFL fun never stops.

The Giants Need A Boost

The Giants so far are 1-6 under new head coach Joe Judge and will be mostly out gunned this Monday evening by a Buccaneers that took some time to develop under Tom Brady at quarterback, but, they are finally coming along and looking like a real football team.

Todd Bowles’ defensive unit is now ranked as third best in the NFL.  It is yielding on average a paltry 66 yards per game and has racked up 25 sacks making them second in the league.  Giants’ offensive coach said, “There really are not many holes in this defense.  They’re really good.”

The game will be played at the Giants home Met Life Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where the weather is expected to be frosty for the big Monday night game.  Tom Brady, who is 43 years old now, has thrown 15 touchdown passes and only one pick in his last five games while young Daniel Jones at quarterback for the Giants has only managed to win one game in his first start of the season against the Washington team that still has not found a name for itself.

Tampa’s Ready For A Challenge

Buccaneers’ head coach Bruce Arians has his team believing in the current hype going around Tampa Bay since the Lightning won the Stanley Cup, and the Rays were World Series runners up.  Time for the Bucs to bring an NFL Championship home to Tampa Bay to complete the cycle.  It won’t happen this season, but the future looks bright for the Buccaneers team.

Straight talking Arians, who has been around football now for decades, knows about hype and told journalists, “I think you embrace it because you’re earning it.  But, it doesn’t mean anything.  You’ve got to show up in practice-we’ve had really good week of practice and a really good week this week.  I think it’s carrying over into ball games.  It just takes one loss and you’re back in the toilet.”

While the Buccaneers do not expect much of a problem from a Giants offense ranked 30th in the NFL, they will still remember Jones, in his first NFL start last throwing for two touchdowns last year and rushing for two more.  Still, this has been a crazy season for football, and several games have shown that anything can happen.

Jason Pierre-Paul will be back in for the Bucs, playing at his favorite spot as outside linebacker.  He knows the Giants, since he was drafted by them in 2010, and will be able to give Tampa a little insider information.  Pierre-Paul, with five and a half sacks, is ready and states, “We know it’s a Super Bowl team, but at the end of the day, it’s the work you put in.  Any team can be a Super Bowl team, but when you look at the Bucs, the pieces that we have and the way it connects, people obviously think that we’re going to go to the Super Bowl.  But, we’ve got to put in the work.”

A Moneyline Wager Will Go Nowhere

Tampa’s getting -670 at Unibet to win the game and this makes a moneyline bet almost completely without value.  The Over/Under sits at 46.5 (-107) and this game, given the power of the Bucs, could go over.