49ers at Buccaneers: How to watch, odds, expert picks with San Francisco favored in Christian McCaffrey's return

Date:

Share post:


Can Baker Mayfield catch a break? The 29-year-old is playing the best ball of his career and wasn’t slowed a bit by losing his top two wide receivers. His reward? A string of heartbreakers, and now home-underdog Tampa Bay gets to be the first team this season to face the 49ers with Christian McCaffrey.

Worse still for the Buccaneers, San Francisco had a week to heal its supporting cast and is 43-17 coming out of the bye under Kyle Shannahan. No wonder the spread is so wide.

But Mayfield has taken on all comers in 2024, leading the league in touchdown passes and throwing for the second-most yards. The Buccaneers have kept the pressure off their quarterback, and he’s responded by leading the offense to top-5 rankings in yards and points per game, even as he was forced to replace Mike Evans and Chris Godwin with Cade Otton and Sterling Shepard.

Mayfield’s also using his legs to do damage this season, especially when keeping drives alive on third down. Mayfield’s 14 third-down scampers are the most in the NFL, and a league-leading six have gone for more than 10 yards. Expect to see him run against the Niners, as San Francisco has been brutal against scrambles this season. They’ve seen only eight but have allowed 96 yards and a touchdown.

That said, the Niners have firepower, and their most successful formation (two running backs, one tight end) is Tampa’s weakness. The Bucs have allowed more than eight yards per carry against that alignment, so expect a lot of it with McCaffrey’s return. If the trends hold, it will be long possessions and ground gashes for San Francisco and a stat sheet bonanza for Mayfield as the Bucs play catch-up all day.


How to watch San Francisco 49ers at Tampa Bay Buccaneers


49ers vs. Buccaneers odds


Expert picks for 49ers vs. Buccaneers


The Pulse Newsletter

Free, daily sports updates direct to your inbox.

Free, daily sports updates direct to your inbox.

Sign UpBuy The Pulse Newsletter

Read more about NFL Week 10

Trade deadline winners, losers: Chiefs, Lions get richer; why did Giants stay put?

Trade grades: Commanders make deadline day splash by acquiring Marshon Lattimore

Jayden Daniels, Brock Bowers lead midseason All-Rookie team. Who else made the cut?

Travis Kelce says brother Jason was ‘defending’ their family in phone-smashing incident

(Photo of Christian McCaffrey: Lachlan Cunningham / Getty Images)





Source link

Alexandra Williams
Alexandra Williams
Alexandra Williams is a writer and editor. Angeles. She writes about politics, art, and culture for LinkDaddy News.

Recent posts

Related articles

Penguins trade Lars Eller to Capitals for 2 draft picks: What it means for Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH — With his franchise off to one of its worst starts in two decades, Pittsburgh Penguins...

49ers, standout CB Deommodore Lenoir agree to 5-year, $92 million extension: Sources

By Matt Barrows, Jeff Howe and Jelani ScottThe San Francisco 49ers rewarded cornerback Deommodore Lenoir, a key...

Reds hire Brad Mills as bench coach, reuniting him with manager Terry Francona

The Cincinnati Reds hired former Houston Astros manager Brad Mills as bench coach under manager Terry Francona,...

Lewis Hall 'a completely different player' from Chelsea debut under Thomas Tuchel

Lewis Hall believes that he is a “completely different player” now from the one who was given...

College Football Playoff rankings live updates: Countdown to today’s new release after Week 11 games

Here are my thoughts on Tuesday’s CFP rankings:ACC: SMU (8-1) should become the highest-ranked ACC team and...

Market share report: Buying Broncos Estime and Sutton, selling CMC's backups

Target and touch totals are important but not as important as the market share. “Targets” is mostly...

Submit your questions for Jordan Bianchi's end-of-season NASCAR mailbag

It’s been an eventual and noteworthy 2024 NASCAR season, both on and off the track. Over 38...

2024 Heisman Trophy odds: Travis Hunter takes control heading into final stretch

It’s hard to overcome the quarterback advantage in the Heisman race. Quarterbacks touch the ball on every...