The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1-9) are heading to the Georgia Dome to take on the Atlanta Falcons (5-5) Sunday.  The Falcons are a much better team at home (4-0) than they are on the road (1-5), so the Buccaneers need to be prepared to play a solid football team.  The Bucs’ defense has been giving up way too many rushing yards all season (169 yards per game), something the Falcons are going to try and take advantage of.  Good news for the Bucs is that the Falcons’ star running back Michael Turner probably wont play in this one and is listed as questionable due to an ankle sprain.  Even if Turner does play, he wont be as effective without his ankle 100%.  Jason Snelling will likely get the bulk of the carries for the Falcons, and although he is a back-up he is a very capable back.  He has had some good games for the Falcons and is averaging 4.2 yards per carry this season.  Although I expect the Falcons to run the ball a lot, the Bucs defense cannot forget about quarterback Matt Ryan.  Ryan has been having a “sophomore slump” this season, but he is coming off one of his best games of the season.

Josh Freeman will stay the starter for the Bucs’ at quarterback, despite having 11 turnovers in his three starts.  The Falcons don’t have a very good pass-defense though, so I would expect some improvement from Freeman compared to last week where he threw three interceptions.  The Falcons also give up 126 rushing yards per game so Cadillac Williams and Derrick Ward could have their first good game in weeks.  I don’t think the Bucs’ offense will be able to keep up with Matt Ryan and the Falcons’ offense, so it looks like the Bucs will get their tenth loss of the season.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION:  Tampa Bay Buccaneers 13, Atlanta Falcons 27