Buccaneers vs. Vikings 2012: Tampa Bay rides Doug Martin to a big road win

The Buccaneers now have a 3-4 record. Bad breaks here and there along with an early season scheduled heavy on NFC East opponents have all contributed that. Martin has not been a problem. In fact, Tampa Bay’s offense came into this game scoring 24.7 points per game. Martin accounted for two touchdowns in Thursday’s 36-17 win, and the Buccaneers’ scoring total jumped again.

Martin finished the game with 135 rushing yards and a touchdown on 29 carries. He had 16 carries at the half, and head coach Greg Schiano told the sideline reporter that he planned to share the workload to keep some wear and tear off his rookie running back. Even tough guy and draft fan boy icon Mike Mayock wondered if Martin should carry a full load. For the Bucs, it’s probably a good thing he did.

Watch two very large grown men exchange unpleasantness.

The pair got offsetting penalties -- Allen a facemask call and unnecessary roughness on Penn. It saved either team a loss of yardage, and Tampa Bay got another chance on 3rd-and-10. That’s where it gets really fantastical.

Adrian Peterson is taking over for the Vikings offense in Week 8 against the Buccaneers. He now has 14 carries for 125 yards and a touchdown on the night, with a huge 64-yard score capping off his performance so far.

Peterson is averaging 8.9 yards per carry. It’s safe to say the Vikings will continue to rely on his dominant ability.

After the first half, the announcing crew on the NFL Network mentioned that Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach and Eisenhower Era haircut enthusiast Greg Schiano was considering taking some of the load off Doug Martin, his rookie running back. Hopefully he reconsidered.

Martin caught a short screen pass on the left side of the field from Josh Freeman. He broke a couple of tackle attempts by the Vikings defense, and then shifted into high gear to carry it all the way down the field for a 64-yard touchdown. Have a look at the play.

Mike Williams had a touchdown pass at the end of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ game last week against the Saints. And then he didn’t, thanks to an illegal touching call. Williams caught a touchdown pass on Thursday night against the Vikings, and this time, there was no illegal touching, no going out of bounds ... just a good catch.

Josh Freeman and Doug Martin head into the locker room at halftime with their team up by 10 on the road. Freeman has completed just 10 of 22 passes for 85 yards, but two red zone touchdowns have boosted his stats on the night.

Martin has already set a career-high on the ground, carrying the ball 14 times for 106 yards. The Bucs offense is letting him go to work, and it’s paying off right now.

Percy Harvin has two catches so far in Thursday night’s bout against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, one of which off a touchdown pass that got the Vikings on the board in the second quarter.

Harvin lines up in the slot and gets behind the defender for a nice throw from Christian Ponder. His catch is not to be overlooked and there are a lot of receivers in the NFL who can’t make it.

Doug Martin exploded out of the gates on Thursday night, and he looks like he could put up a few career-highs against the Vikings in Week 8. After one quarter Martin has eight carries for 69 yards, adding a catch for an extra nine yards to that total.

The Buccaneers haven’t given Martin 20+ carries since Week 2, but it’s looking like he’ll easily surpass that if he continues this kind of output.

Thursday’s game will be broadcast by the NFL Network, but fans in the local market will be able to see it even if they do not have a subscription to the cable channel. The league’s broadcast contract calls for primetime Thursday and Monday games to be shown on local broadcast affiliates, while the cable broadcast itself it blacked out.

Thursday, Oct. 25, 8:20 p.m. ET

Minnesota Vikings

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Minnesota originally opened as 5.5 favorites, but the line shifted to 6.5 points as the week progressed. So far in 2012, the Vikings are a perfect 4-0 at home, while the Buccaneers are 0-2 on the road.

Though the Buccaneers are just 2-4 this season, Tampa Bay is 4-2 against the spread -- and a perfect 2-0 against the spread on the road.

Tampa Bay, which has struggled to a 2-4 record for first-year head coach Greg Schiano, could nevertheless be a matchup problem for the Vikings. The Bucs are allowing just 76.0 rushing yards per game, good for third in the league. While they have struggled against the pass (323.0 yards per game), they’ve managed to hold opponents to just 22.7 points per game.

Any concern over the matchup is not registering with NFL experts, who are largely choosing Minnesota to win. Of the nine ESPN NFL experts to make selections this week, only one has chosen Tampa Bay to win. The VIkings get a clean sweep from the experts at CBS, and are a unanimous selection at Yahoo, as well.