Sunday Night Football odds, spread, line: Buccaneers vs. Cowboys prediction, NFL picks by expert who’s 33-19

Teams that won their respective divisions a year ago will clash on Sunday Night Football when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers face the Dallas Cowboys. The Buccaneers won the NFC South for the first time in 14 years last season, going 13-4 before losing to the eventual Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams 30-27 in the NFC Divisional round. The Cowboys won the NFC East for the first time in three years in 2021 with a 12-5 mark. They bowed out of the playoffs in the Wild Card round, falling 23-17 to the San Francisco 49ers. The Buccaneers enter the game with health issues along the interior offensive line and at wide receiver, while the Cowboys will be without All-Pro left tackle Tyron Smith. Dallas leads the all-time series 13-5, and the Cowboys have posted wins in two of the past three matchups.

Kickoff from AT&T Stadium is set for 8:20 p.m. ET. Tampa Bay is a 2.5-point favorite in the latest Cowboys vs. Buccaneers vs. odds from Caesars Sportsbook, while the over-under for total points scored is 50.5. Before you make any Buccaneers vs. Cowboys picks of your own, make sure you check out what SportsLine NFL expert R.J. White has to say.

Over the past seven years White, a CBS Sports fantasy and gambling editor, has gone 329-250-21 (56.8 percent) in the world’s most prestigious football handicapping competition, the Las Vegas SuperContest. He also is SportsLine’s No. 1 NFL expert, going 445-378-24 on his against-the-spread NFL picks from 2017-21, returning $2,542 to $100 players. In addition, White is 33-19-4 on his last 56 against-the-spread picks involving the Buccaneers. Anyone who has followed him is way up.

Now, White has zoned in on Buccaneers vs. Cowboys and just locked in his picks and NFL predictions. You can head to SportsLine now to see White’s picks. Here are the NFL odds and betting lines for Buccaneers vs. Cowboys:

Featured Game | Dallas Cowboys vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Why the Buccaneers can cover

Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady enters his third season with the Bucs with high expectations. In two seasons with Tampa Bay, Brady has made 33 starts. He is the NFL’s all-time regular season leader in starts with 316, passing yardage (84,520), completions (7,263) and touchdown passes (624). In 2021, Brady led the NFL with a career-high 5,316 passing yards and 43 touchdown passes, the third-most passing yards in a single season all-time.

Also helping power the offense is running back Leonard Fournette. The fifth-year veteran played in 14 games last season and had 1,266 yards from scrimmage with 10 total touchdowns. He was third in the league among running backs with 69 receptions. For his career, including the past two seasons in Tampa Bay, Fournette has played in 63 games with 943 carries for 3,810 yards (4.0 average) and 31 touchdowns.

Why the Cowboys can cover 

Despite offensive line concerns, Dallas will once again be led by quarterback Dak Prescott. Prescott passed for 4,449 yards and a franchise-record 37 touchdowns last season, and ranked third in the NFL with a 104.2 rating. He joined Daunte Culpepper and Cam Newton as the only quarterbacks to ever have 125-plus touchdown passes (143) and 25 or more rushing TDs (25) in their first six career seasons. Prescott passed for 23 TDs vs. two interceptions for a 116.2 rating in eight home starts in 2021. He had a Week 1 NFL record 42 completions and passed for 403 yards and three TDs in last year’s meeting with Tampa Bay.

On the other side of the ball, the Cowboys have two of the most disruptive playmakers in the league in defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence and cornerback Trevon Diggs. Lawrence is once again healthy and looking to reclaim his place among the NFL’s best edge rushers. Diggs is coming off an outstanding 2021 campaign in which he recorded 11 interceptions, returning two for touchdowns, en route to earning All-Pro and Pro Bowl honors for the first time in his NFL career. 

How to make Buccaneers vs. Cowboys picks

For Sunday Night Football, White is leaning under on the point total, but he also says a critical X-factor makes one side of the spread a must-back. He’s only sharing what it is, and which side to back, at SportsLine.

So, who wins Cowboys vs. Buccaneers? And which X-factor makes one side of the spread hit hard? Visit SportsLine now to see which side of the Cowboys vs. Buccaneers spread you need to jump on, all from the expert who’s 33-19 on Tampa Bay picks, and find out.