Bucs' Underdogs In First Ever Trip To Buffalo

NFL News - September 18th, 2009 - Written by John

Tampa Bay at Buffalo -- When Leodis McKelvin coughed up a kick-off return with two minutes left in Monday night's game against New England, it immediately swung the momentum of the game and provided an opening for Tom Brady to stage another comeback.

The fumble sent a shockwave through the Buffalo community, devastated from watching their team throw away a division game they should've won. So much so that several teenagers vandalized McKelvin's lawn, writing the final score among various obscenities. Buffalo will try to keep it from swinging the momentum of the entire season when they host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in one of the late games Sunday.

These teams haven't seen each other since 2005, when Cadillac Williams was still running with his original set of knees and darted for 128 yards en route to a 19-3 win. But Tampa Bay has never gone to Buffalo, and a lot has changed in the ensuing four years.

It's hard to know what to expect from a team making it's first trip to a particular city in the NFL and, with that in mind, Tampa Bay will be five-point underdogs against Buffalo, with a moneyline return of +190, according to BetUS sportsbook.

Both teams have taken on monumental rebuilding tasks. They each have different head coaches and have gone through a combined five starting quarterbacks. Most of that came from Tampa Bay after the carousel created by former coach Jon Gruden. Now gone, rookie coach Raheem Morris has settled on Byron Leftwich for his leadership and engineered an effective offense that sparkled at times a week ago.

The Bucs did drop that first game against the Cowboys, surrendering 34 points and 462 total yards, but Leftwich was able to connect with newly-acquired tight end Kellen Winslow and throw for 276 yards.

Meanwhile, the Bills' offense was surprisingly good, as well, against New England. Despite not scoring only three points in 15 drives during the preseason, the first-team offense was able to move up-and-down the field smoothly. Fred Jackson, in to replace suspended Marshawn Lynch, had 140 total yards, and was a valuable target in the backfield for Trent Edwards. One major concern after the game, however, was the fact that diva Terrell Owens only had more drops than catches and made several underhanded comments about his team's loss. In a press conference, Owens criticized Edwards for making bad decisions and McKelvin for fumbling the return.

His public stunts have only handcuffed his previous teams so far and the Bills will likely need to win, and find Owens more, to keep the peace for at least another week.

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