NFL Week 2 and we will see the Jacksonville Jaguars travel to the Nation's Capital to take on the Washington Redskins. The game has a start time of 1:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on CBS. Current Vegas odds have the Redskins listed as 6 point favorites, while the total is set at 43.
Analysis: The Jacksonville Jaguars come in off another poor year, in which they went just 4-12 but their have been some improvements made and that means this team is on the right track back to respectability. They really showed it last week when they led the Eagles big in the first half of their game, before Philadelphia pulled away in the 2nd half. Last year the Jags were last in the league in scoring, at 15.4 ppg, while also ranking 31st in total yards (293.8 ypg), 22nd in passing (215.1 ypg) and 31st in rushing (78.8 ypg). Blake Bortles was taken with the third overall pick in the draft, but he will start the season on the sideline as Chad Henne will be the starter this year, after playing in 15 games for the Jags last year. Toby Gerhart was brought in to be the feature back, but he only has had 86 carries the last 2 years behind Adrian Petersen in Minnesota (Vikings probably wished they had him now). Defensively, the Jags ranked 28th in points allowed (28.1 ppg), 27th in yards allowed (379.4 ypg), 25th vs the pass (247.6 ypg) and 29th vs the run (131.8 ypg). The defense looks improved this year and should b the strength of the team.
The Washington Redskins suffered through a miserable 3-13 campaign last year and this year's campaign didn't start out much better after they lost to the Houston Texans by a score of 17-6. Last year the Redskin offense was ranked 23 rd in scoring, at 20.9 ppg, while also ranking 9th in total yards (369.7 ypg), 16th in passing (234.4 ypg) and 5th in rushing (135.2 ypg). Robert Griffin did not play all that well and may have come back sooner then his should have from his playoff injury the year before.He also struggled in the preseason, while Kirk Cousins played very well, which may have now sparked a QB controversy. Jackson and Pierre Garcon should form a deadly downfield duo, while the running game behind Alfred Morris should have another solid year. This defense was pretty much a mess last year and the Skins spent allot of time in the off-season trying to upgrade it. DC Jim Haslett is back to run his 3-4 defense and he got some new pieces to work with in the signing of DB’s Tracy Porter and Ryan Clark, plus DT Jason Hatcher.
Pick: Going with the Jags here. Can't see the Skins being favored by this much over anyone. This team is a mess, especially on the offensive side of the ball and I feel that an improved Jags defense will keep them under wraps here. The skins played good defense last week, but overall this is not a good defense and I expect the young Jags to exploit them enough to get the Cover here.
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