Winning ugly was the catch phrase of the week for the Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans, but the key word is winning. Both teams accomplished that and head into their Week 14 Thursday Night Football matchup with very different goals for the rest of the year. The Jags will look to finish strong after ending a seven-game losing streak while the Titans are still on the fringe of the AFC playoff picture heading into the final quarter of the 2018 campaign. Don’t expect the Jags to light up the scoreboard after two field goals was enough to get them a win. The total hit the board at 38, which might be too high for this one.
Watch this Week 14 regular season matchup live on Thursday, December 6, 2018, at 8:20 p.m. ET at Nissan Stadium.
Opening NFL Odds at BookMaker.eu
Jacksonville Jaguars +4
Tennessee Titans -4
Over/Under 38
Given the performance of the offense this season it was going to take a shutout for the Jags to end their losing streak. Voila, the defense delivered against one of the hottest teams in the league to end that woeful seven-game slide. It didn’t matter that Cody Kessler threw for only 150 yards and the Jags amassed just 211 for the game because they won. And it was a dominant effort by the group that nearly led Jacksonville to the Super Bowl last season.
The Jags aren’t going to the Super Bowl this year. Hell, they’re not even making the postseason after being a favorite before the year began. Their goal now is to finish at .500 and that would mean winning their remaining four games. They’d also have to get past the Titans, a team that’s had their number lately. When the Jags won the AFC South last year, one-third of their season loss total was given to them by the Titans. Tennessee also won the earlier matchup this season in a 9-6 slugfest where the Jags were favored by 10-points.
The Jags know what they have to do in order to win games and that’s play nasty defense, something they accomplished in last week’s win over the Colts. They allowed just 248 passing yards to Andrew Luck, picked him off once and sacked him three times. It doesn’t sound like much, but considering Luck was sacked just once in the previous five games and the Colts were averaging nearly 35 points during their five-game winning streak, it was a monstrous effort.
The cap needs to be tipped to the Jags defense for taking Luck out of his game and making the Colts pay for a few fourth-down decisions. Three times Indy went for it on fourth and short when in field goal range, and three times they rolled snake eyes. It’s not easy to get a shutout in the NFL, but when the opponent takes points off the board and you come up with big stops that zero looks pretty good.
Making his first start in place of Blake Bortles, Kessler had his struggles. He completed 18 of his 24 passes for 150 yards and the Jags’ longest play of the day was for 23 yards. More importantly, though, Kessler didn’t turn the ball over and he did just enough to get the team into field goal range. Leonard Fournette can return after serving his suspension and that should help the offense, but don’t expect too many points.
Statistically the Titans are a better defensive team than Indy so when the Jags get close it will be time for Josh Lambo, who connected on a pair of three-pointers for the only points last week. Play a prop at BookMaker.eu for the Jags’ kicker to open the scoring and hit a few field goals over the course of the game.
Jaguars at Titans Live Betting
All signs point to a defensive battle in this one. It’s been a down year for the Jags but they still have one of the better defensive units in the game. They rank third in total defense and fifth in scoring defense while the Titans rank ninth and sixth in the same categories. And given recent history and form, it’s just hard to envision where the offense is going to come from. The Jags could’ve packed it in after losing seven in a row, but they played an inspired game last week and I don’t see Marcus Mariota and the Titans having their way. Play under Mariota’s passing yards and Tennessee’s point total on the adjusted live betting lines at BookMaker.eu.
NFL Betting Odds
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