NFL Betting Preview: Philadelphia Eagles at Jacksonville Jaguars

Added on Sep 21, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

With Week 2 of the NFL in the books we’ll start looking at Week 3 games. In this post we’ll take a look at the Jacksonville Jaguars as they host the Philadelphia Eagles. Philly will have Kevin Kolb back in the lineup for this game, a matchup of 1-1 teams. Jacksonville beat Denver at home in their opening game before losing at San Diego this past weekend.

Philadelphia Eagles at Jacksonville Jaguars
September 26, 2010 1:05 PM Pacific

We’re not really sure why the ‘public’ has taken a liking to this Philadelphia Eagles team, but until the linesmakers price them correctly we’ll gladly keep betting against them. For the second week in a row we get an Eagles team in disarray on offense, struggling on defense and yet they’re favored on the road. And as was the case last week when we cashed an easy ticket on Detroit, we’ll grab the value with the home underdogs.

At least this price makes some sense based on the fact that the Jaguars have been a horrible pointspread investment in recent years and particularly at home. Jags are 10-24 ATS in the last three years with a 4-13 ATS record on their home field. Of course trends like that provide us some idea of ‘meta’ tendencies but its important to not let them obfuscate the ‘micro’ analysis of each game. At this price, we just need Jacksonville to win outright and we like their chances of doing that. The Jaguars made a point of upgrading their defense in the offseason, and the defensive line was a particular area of concern. They should have a field day against a porous Eagles OL that allowed Michael Vick to be sacked five times on Sunday, and don’t forget they’ll be taking shots at the less mobile Kevin Kolb here. The Eagles’ defense may be the bigger problem–they couldn’t contain Shaun Hill who passed for 355 yards and 2 TDs as the Lions scored 32 points. Jacksonville’s offense is definitely more experienced and competent, led by quarterback David Garrard and one of the NFL’s best running backs in Maurice Jones-Drew. Drew has reportedly been dealing with a nagging knee injury and had an awful game against San Diego on Sunday, but an outing against an inexperienced Eagles front could be just what the doctor ordered.

And strange as it may seem for a team that is 1-1 SU/0-2 ATS, the Eagles have a huge lookahead spot on deck as they play the Washington Redskins at home next weekend–that’ll be the first game back for longtime quarterback Donovan McNabb. With huge issues on both sides of the ball for Philadelphia they’ve got no business being favored on the road here, and we look for the Jags to win outright.

Bet Jacksonville +3 over Philadelphia