The Jacksonville Jaguars will finally be mid-way through their season this Sunday as they take on the New York Jets. They will also be hoping to at least be .500 in the process, which would put them in good shape heading forward with the AFC South being the tightest division in football.
Before they get to that point, they must take care of business against a Jets team that has shown they can be really good, or really bad when looking at their last two games.
Here are three things to know about Week 8’s upcoming game between Gang Green and the Cardiac Cats:
The Jaguars are heavy favorites at home
The Jags will roll into this one as 5.5-point favorites, which is the highest margin they’ve had all year. That might be for a variety of reasons, including the fact that the team was held to zero points in their last outing against the New England Patriots and the fact that they will be going into Week 8 with a short week to rest up afterward.
While fans will be quick to point out the injuries the Jags are dealing with, especially at linebacker, the Jets have an even longer injury report with 19 players total. Eight of those players start on offense, including left tackle Kelvin Beachum and guard Kelechi Osemele, and four starters on defense, including defensive lineman Henry Anderson and Steve McLendon.
Despite all of the injuries, fans shouldn’t rule out a close one with the Jags’ inconsistency. They’ve struggled to put full games together where the offense and defense both show up. This game has the potential to be just as close as the rest of the Jags’ games, especially with players like Robby Anderson and Le’Veon Bell causing them problems in the past.
The series is tied a 7-7
The Jags and Jets will enter Week 8’s game with the series knotted up at 7-7. Within the last five seasons, they’ve played each other three times and the Jets are 2-1 over that span. They defeated the Jags 28-23 at Metlife Stadium in 2015 and defeated them again by a score of 20-23 in 2017. In 2018, the Jags were able to return the favor at home with a convincing 31-12 win.
When it comes to the games played in Jacksonville, they are 4-1 against the Jets, so they will at least have that going in their favor. The only loss they’ve taken in Jacksonville was in December of 2012. The score for that game was 14-10.
The Jets have struggled mightily on offense, but it might not be an easy win for the Jags
The Jets’ offense will come into Sunday’s game second to last in points scored (10.5 PPG average) and rushing yards (66.8 YPG average) and last in yards per game (209 YPG average) and passing yards (142.2 YPG average). However, it’s worth noting that they were without their starting quarterback Sam Darnold for three games. Still, even with his return, the team has been inconsistent.
Week 6 against the Dallas Cowboys, he looked like the franchise quarterback fans were hoping for, going 23-of-32 on the afternoon for 338 yards, two touchdowns an interception and a passer rating of 113.8. However, against the Patriots, the second-year quarterback was apparently “seeing ghosts,” which translated to a night where he only completed 11-of-32 passes for 86 yards and had four picks. That was good for a passer rating of 3.6, so he’ll clearly be looking to bounce back.
The Jags should win this one, but most fans are well aware that they also are inconsistent and could end up on the losing side, too. Additionally, they aren’t the defensive unit that the Patriots are despite having more talent, as most view their group as the best in football.
It won’t help that the Jags will likely be entering the game without two of their three starting linebackers and without defensive tackle Marcell Dareus, who just had core muscle surgery and is their top run defender. This could set up the Jets to get Le’Veon Bell going. With the Jags likely to counter that by utilizing Leonard Fournette, fans shouldn’t be shocked if the game turns out to be an old school brawl that goes down to the wire, especially if the Jags’ offense starts slow.
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