Jaguars vs. Jets: Preview, score prediction for Week 4

Jacksonville Jaguars vs. New York Jets

If you were thinking about the Jacksonville Jaguars of recent years, you would think that a matchup with the New York Jets would be between two cellar-dweeling squads. Instead, the Jags come into this game at 2-1 on the season and looking like a really dangerous team. Gang Green, however, is only turning fans’ faces green for the most part.

Admittedly, New York pulled off a shocking upset of the Dolphins a week ago. Having said that, that may have been more about Miami than anything. This team is devoid of talent in so many areas, that it’s hard for them to succeed. And while Jacksonville still has to deal with Blake Bortles being their quarterback, their defense is stout and they have weapons to ease the burden on their signal-caller.

So as the Jags travel to MetLife Stadium on Sunday, what’s about to happen? Let’s dive in.

Keys to Victory

Jacksonville’s offense will have the same key to victory week-in and week-out. They have to feed Leonard Fournette and keep doing so. The biggest reason that’s the case is to take the ball out of Blake Bortles’ hands, which has often led to this team’s downfall. Against a bad run defense in New York, the rookie running back could have a field day.

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When it comes to the defense, the Jaguars just need to go about business as usual. New York’s offense is quite one-dimensional as the running game has seen nothing consistent to this point. As such, Jalen Ramsey and A.J. Bouye just need to stay disciplined to shut down the Jets receivers while Calais Campbell and company get after Josh McCown.

Contrarily, the Jets have to find ways to get their running backs to the ball effectively. Matt Forte has a little left in the tank, but Bilal Powell still looks quality. It may not work with traditional hand-offs, but they have to find the ways to negate the prowess of the Jaguars defensive backs.

Meanwhile, the defense has to do their best to force Bortles to throw. The New York run defense hasn’t been good at all to this point in the year, but they still need to stack the box. If Bortles beats you, so be it. But the Jags’ chances decrease if the game is in the quarterback’s hands.

Betting Odds

Point Spread: Jacksonville -3
Moneyline: Jacksonville -180, New York +155
Over/Under: 38

Odds via Sportsbook Review

Next: NFL 2017: Picks against the spread for Week 4

Prediction

As simply as it can be put, the Jaguars are in a different class than the Jets. I know that’s a strange thing to have that being said about Jacksonville. This is an elite defense and they’re facing a bad offense that’s been entirely one-dimensional. That should be enough to take the game out of Bortles’ hands and give the Jags the victory to move to 3-1.

Final Score: Jacksonville Jaguars: 23, New York Jets: 7

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