Take the Jaguars on Thursday Night

Not even a few years ago, this matchup would be between two perennial losers that were bottom-dwelling teams in their divisions. The Jaguars are almost at .500 for the season and the Jets are already there. Now they face each other as the only game in town on a Thursday night, a night that keeps getting worse and worse for matchups.

If you recall, Jets fans were pissed about a win for them in the season prior to Trevor Lawrence being drafted. The expectation was that if the Jets were going to tank, they needed to do it properly and get Lawrence with the first overall pick. That didn't happen and the Jets still have questions at the quarterback position. They have had three different starting quarterbacks this season and are using Zach Wilson to start this game. He is, well, terrible. On the year, he has just 1,596 yards and six touchdowns to go with six interceptions. He's not the sole reason for their recent skid, but he hasn't done them any favors. They were also 6-3 just five short weeks ago. Since that point, they've gone just 1-4 and lost their past three games. You could make an argument that they should've gone 2-3 or 3-2 in this stretch. They went from a chance at a playoff spot to another year of missing the playoffs, but this year they won't even have a good pick to show for their absence.

The Jaguars are not going to make the playoffs either, but at least they finally have their franchise quarterback. Lawrence has been awesome this year with 3,520 yards and 24 touchdowns. The most impressive thing though is that he has only thrown seven interceptions on the year. He's led them to some decent games over the past five weeks. They are on a two-game winning streak after beating the Cowboys last week and the Titans the week prior. They also were able to take down the Ravens but lost to the Lions and Chiefs. In this game, they get the Jets while they are down and should be able to take another road game. Lawrence will probably have a tough time against the Jets secondary that is only allowing 211.6 yards per game to opponents passing games.

The Jets have a better defense, but the Jaguars have a better offense. So you get an offense that is playing well against a tough defense. And, you have a bad offense playing against a not-so-great defense. That to me leads toward the under but there is no room for error whatsoever at 36. Instead, I'll take the Jaguars on the moneyline at -115.

I also think that the first score of this game is a field goal at -110. I think the Jaguars score the first field goal as the first score of the game at +260.

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