{"id":17056,"date":"2011-08-11T23:50:53","date_gmt":"2011-08-12T04:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=17056"},"modified":"2011-08-11T23:49:55","modified_gmt":"2011-08-12T04:49:55","slug":"nfl-predictions-tampa-bay-buccaneers-at-kansas-city-chiefs-preseason-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nfl-predictions-tampa-bay-buccaneers-at-kansas-city-chiefs-preseason-preview-17056\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Predictions: Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Kansas City Chiefs Preseason Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Kansas City Chiefs
\nFriday, 8\/12\/11, 8:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 FOX
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Kansas City -2
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Tampa Bay -3
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 34
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 32.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Broncos<\/a>
The Kansas Chiefs are aiming for an even better season in their third year under head coach Todd Haley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tampa Bay is aiming to take another step forward after finishing 10-6 last year under third-year head coach Raheem Morris.\u00a0 The Buccaneers also managed to post a 9-5-2 ATS mark during the course of the 2010 season.\u00a0 Experts are starting to take notice in the team\u2019s youth starting to grow up and expect at least the same amount of wins in 2011 that the squad produced last year.\u00a0 That certainly wouldn\u2019t be a step back when considering last year\u2019s Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers had the same regular season mark to end the year.\u00a0 Tampa Bay is also proud of tallying a perfect 7-0 ATS mark away from Raymond James Stadium last year.<\/p>\n

The Buccaneers are expected to play starting quarterback Josh Freeman for about 20 plays tonight and big things are expected from the former Kansas State signal-caller this year.\u00a0 He is coming off a year of throwing for 3,500 yards and 25 touchdowns, while limiting his mistakes to just being intercepted six times.\u00a0 Tampa Bay\u2019s young offensive nucleus also includes bruising running back LaGarrette Blount and wide receiver Mike Williams.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to point out that the Buccaneers own a 4-1 advantage over the Chiefs in preseason play, including a 20-15 home win last year.<\/p>\n

Kansas City also came away with a 10-6 regular season record last year, but unlike tonight\u2019s opponent, it went on to postseason play.\u00a0 The Chiefs were ultimately eliminated in the Wild Card round in a 30-7 home loss to Baltimore and fans expect a repeat performance heading into the 2011 campaign.\u00a0 Head coach Todd Haley also enters his third year at the helm, which is another similarity between the two franchises on the football field.\u00a0 Kansas City improved its record by six wins from the previous year due to a punishing run game that led the NFL in rushing last year.<\/p>\n

The Chiefs bring back the two-pronged rushing attack of Jamaal Charles and Thomas Jones, while a new player has been brought into the fold in the backfield.\u00a0 Former Baltimore runner Le\u2019Ron McClain comes in to fulfill the role of being the team\u2019s full-time fullback, something he wasn\u2019t completely sold on earlier in his career.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m ready to block and get Jamaal 1,000 yards and Thomas 1,000 yards,\u201d stated McClain.\u00a0 One factor to keep an eye on tonight is the squad\u2019s fitness, as they\u2019ve barely worked out in pads thus far in camp and media members have taken notice.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a long-term package from the best NFL handicappers in the nation at Maddux Sports.\u00a0 The winning starts today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Kansas City Chiefs Friday, 8\/12\/11, 8:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 FOX Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Kansas City -2 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Tampa Bay -3 Opening Total:\u00a0 34 Current Total:\u00a0 32.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Tampa Bay is aiming to take another step forward after finishing 10-6 last year under third-year head coach Raheem […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":5445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[3729,759,303,5250,1129,458,5251,665],"class_list":["post-17056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-jamaal-charles","tag-josh-freeman","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-lagarrette-blount","tag-raheem-morris","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-thomas-jones","tag-todd-haley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17056"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17057,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17056\/revisions\/17057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}