I really can’t believe that money has come in on Tampa Bay here.
The Vipers are 0-2.
They’ve scored 12 points this season.
The offense has zero touchdowns in 120 minutes of football.
This is their home opener, though. It’s not like the weather will really be a factor.
Houston isn’t that far from T-Town as the crow flies and the warm humid air in southeast Texas is similar to that of south-central Florida.
The Houston Roughnecks have put up 68 points, 42 of which came from quarterback PJ Walker touchdown passes.
The Vipers stink on offense, sure, but their defense has been very solid this year.
This is particularly true for the pass defense which only allowed opposing quarterbacks an average of 45% completion percentage in the two games so far this season.
One thing worth noting here is former Virginia Tech Hokie star wide receiver Cam Phillips, who has been instrumental in the Roughnecks passing success so far this season, will be sidelined with an injury.
Take that into account along with the fact that the Tampa Bay Vipers will be debuting CFL juggernaut wideout SJ Green this week who is expected to provide some semblance of life to the near-dead Vipers offense.
Tampa will try to slow the game down with a run-heavy attack and potentially hit the play action over the top to Green as the safeties begin to creep up.
This might very well be Tampa’s best game of the season and Houston’s worst.
Even then, though, the ‘Necks should cover the 5.5. If it was 7 or more points, I might stay away but I like this number.
In Conclusion
Sure, the decibels behind this new football league are beginning to decrease. That’s to be expected. The unknown wasn’t expected to propel the XFL for the entire year.
We have seen the new rules and while I think they are very interesting and quite safe and reasonable, they simply aren’t as new anymore.
As far as the Houston Roughnecks are concerned, being without Cam Phillips will hurt but a 6-point victory isn’t asking much either against a team who has 12 points scored all year.
Enjoy the games!
