Washington Matches Up Surprisingly Well Against Buccaneers Offense

The Washington Football Team (7-9) will be looking to pull off a major upset when they take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (11-5) in the Wild Card Round of the NFL Playoffs. The Buccaneers have won four straight games and are 8.5-point favorites in this one, according to FanDuel Sportsbook's NFL betting odds.

However, the upset may not be as farfetched as some people believe. Washington's defense is one of the best units in the NFL and has proven all year that it can match up with any kind of high-powered offense. In fact, Washington has especially thrived at defending the deep ball, which has been Brady's bread and butter in recent weeks.

Over the last 6 weeks, Tom Brady leads the league in deep-ball attempts, completions, yards, TDs, and is top-5 in deep-ball adjusted comp % and passer rating

During that span, #Bucs lead in 20+ yard plays & completions per game, while #WFT has allowed the league's fewest of both
— Pat Thorman (@Pat_Thorman) January 5, 2021

The Buccaneers' offense has had a lot of success throwing the ball downfield as of late. Tom Brady has thrown for at least 345 passing yards in four of his last five games. That could all change this weekend as he now runs into a defense that has been dominant against opposing QBs.

Plus, Brady has been a much worse quarterback when pressured this season. Only three defenses generated sacks at a higher rate than Washington (8.2%).

If the Football Team wants to win, they cannot get themselves into a shootout. A low-scoring, defensive game benefits Washington more than it does Tampa Bay.

The last time a team under .500 made the playoffs, they pulled off an upset at home as the 7-9 Seattle Seahawks took down the New Orleans Saints, 41-36.

With Washington excelling at stopping what Tampa Bay does best, why can't it happen again?

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Larry Rupp is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Larry Rupp also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username phillyfan424. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.

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