Thursday, May 17th, 2012
The Jacksonville Jaguars will look to bounce back in the win column when they face the New England Patriots in a huge NFL pro football game on Sunday afternoon with playoff implications. Kick off time in New England is scheduled for 1PM Eastern Time with regional television coverage provided by CBS.
The LVSC NFL odds makers have set the opening point spread in this game and the New England Patriots were opened as a 7 ½ point favorite with the over under coming in at 44.
The early money from the NFL betting public has come in on the home favorite, as the New England Patriots are currently an 8-point favorite. The total has seen movement in the betting from the NFL betting public towards the under, as the over under is currently lined at 43 ½ for the bettors to play into.
The Jacksonville Jaguars sit with a 7-7 record this season and 1 game behind the 8-6 teams for an AFC wildcard playoff spot with 2 games remaining. The Jaguars own the tiebreakers over the 7-7 teams with a 6-4 record against the AFC. The team has dropped two straight games and is coming off a hard fought 35-31 home loss to the Indianapolis Colts. The Jaguars defense had no answer for Peyton Manning who picked them apart for 308 passing yards. Jaguars quarterback David Garrard had a good game last week hitting on 23 of 40 for 223 yards three touchdowns and a pick. Running back Maurice Jones Drew had a good game with 110 yards rushing on the Colts. Jacksonville has had issues in pass coverage this season and that is partly due to a very bad pass rush. The Jaguars sit 27th in the NFL in pass defense allowing 244 yards a game. Opposing quarterbacks complete 66.6% of their passes against Jacksonville ranking 29th in the NFL. With Patriot receivers who are good after the catch it could be another long day for the Jaguars defense.
This is the first road game in three weeks for Jacksonville. Three of the four past Jaguars road games have resulted in losses by 17 points or worse. New England enters this contest with a 9-5 record. They are coming off a 17-10 victory at Buffalo last week. It was not New England at its best as the team amassed just 109 rushing yards on 34 carries and just 115 yards through the air. Tom Brady hit on just 11 of his 23 passes last week with a touchdown and an interception. Brady’s 47% passing completion percentage was his worst all season. Wide receiver Randy Moss had just 5 catches for 70 yards and a touchdown. With Moss facing a weak secondary he should put up better numbers this week. Running back Laurence Maroney had just 81 yards on 23 carries last week. New England struggled to maintain drives converting just 5 of 12 third down conversions last week against Buffalo. It was another good performance from the Patriots defense. The team allowed just 10 points and held the Bills to 2 of 12 on third downs. With all the heat the Patriots are getting defensively the team allows just 17.4 points per game. The defense has had two bad games this season in losses to high-powered offenses in New Orleans and Indianapolis and the offense could not produce in the teams 3 other losses this season. At issue for the Patriots this season has been their lack of a good pass rush.
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NFL Trend: New England Patriots are 4-0 to the under in their past 4 games
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