Texans Over Buccaneers as Football Betting Favorites

The Houston Texans are football betting favorites to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday, Sept. 2nd. Both teams will be playing in their final NFL Preseason game of the year.

Houston is definitely going to rest their starters. The Buccaneers might or might not rest their starters because not a whole lot is expected of them this season.

Still, the Bucs will want to make sure that their defense, which wasn’t too bad in 2009, will be well rested for the regular season.

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That means that neither team, including the Bucs, are going to really go after it on Thursday night.

With both teams expected to sort of use the game as a glorified practice session, it makes things tough for football handicappers to find a football betting expert pick in this game.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Houston Texans

Where: Reliant Stadium, Houston, TX

When: September 2nd, 2010 at 8:00 pm EST

TV: KTRK

Radio: Sirius – 161 (HOU)

NFL Betting Lines

Tampa Bay Buccaneers +2 ½ -110 O 36 ½ -110

Houston Texans -2 ½ -110 U 36 ½ -110

I’m always curious when football betting odds are set in an NFL Preseason game and the odds start to change. I mean, this is the 4th NFL Preseason game. That usually means that no starters are likely to step onto the football field and take a snap.

Teams have precious little time between the 4th NFL Preseason game and the 1st NFL Regular Season game in which to get their teams ready. So, when the Houston Texans open as -3 faves and then move to -2 ½ faves, I begin to wonder exactly what sports gamblers are looking at that I’m missing.

So what do I do? I look at past history and try to find out if the Buccaneers, or Houston for that matter, has always, or more often than not, beaten the other team against the football betting point spread.

It turns out that since 2006 the Bucs and Texans have split 4 NFL Preseason games. The Bucs won in 2007 and 2008. The Texans won in 2006 and 2009. Those past stats don’t really help me any in determining the best bet to make on this game.

When it comes to 2010, the Texans lost their first 2 preseason games before beating the Dallas Cowboys 23 to 7. The Buccaneers lost to Miami 10 to 7, beat the Kansas City Chiefs 20 to 15 and then lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars 19 to 13.

Neither team appears ready to win this game. I’m going to go ahead and forget about looking at the spread in my football betting game predictions in regard to this game and instead think about the total.

The total is 36 ½ points. Neither team has scored more than 23 points, Houston against the Cowboys last week, in any NFL Preseason game yet. Tampa Bay, in fact, hasn’t scored more than 20 points in a single NFL Preseason game yet.

Yes, the Bucs and Texans accounted for a total of 47 points in last year’s final NFL Preseason game, the Bucs scored 20 and the Texans scored 27, but I prefer to weight current stats a bit more. This year’s NFL Preseason stats say that the Bucs and Texans won’t put the ball into the end zone too many times on Thursday night.

Because of the current stats, I’m going to go ahead and go with the under in regards to the football betting odds. The total is 36 ½ points. I’m going with the under.

NFL Betting Pick: Under 36 ½ -110

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