NFL Week 2 Thursday Night Football Prediction

Tampa Bay Buccaneers 

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Carolina Panthers 

Later today, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers – a team that I used to absolutely love back in the old creamsicle uniform days – will be visiting the Carolina Panthers.           

Both teams lost games to NFC West teams last week. Tampa lost in a home game to San Francisco, and the Panthers also lost a home game to the Rams.           

So, who has the advantage in this one? My guess is that the Panthers are the better, more complete team. They probably played better than the Bucs did last week, and probably played the better team, as well. They fought hard, coming from fairly far behind to really make a game of it, and make the defending NFC Champion Rams sweat a bito to earn the victory.           

Meanwhile, Tampa played the 49ers tough through the first half, but then kind of faded in the second half.           

Not the way that you would want to start a season. And neither team obviously wants to lose this game, and wake up on Friday morning to find that they had dug themselves into an 0-2 hole to start the new year.           

Somebody is going to lose, though. And again, I just do not see Tampa Bay managing to win this. They have a poor defense, and their offense simply does not look like they did at points last season, when they appeared positively explosive at times.           

So, my official prediction is a win for the home team. My prediction: Carolina