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Betting Line Favors Eagles over Jaguars as Bettorsworld picks an Upset
Michael Vick Returns
8/27/09
All eyes will be on the Jaguars Eagles preseason game Thursday Night as Michael Vick makes his return to the field. Brian Westbrook is also scheduled to return for the Eagles after sugury to remove bone spurs in his ankle. The Eagles are a -7.5 point favorite at sportsbook.com over the Jaguars in this game which is about as high as a preseason betting line gets.
Week 3 in the preseason is the week many coaches point towards as the week they really go all out and actually try to win. They've been working in training camp, they have two games under their belts and it's a chance for the coaches to really see what they have. Many coaches will take it easy and rest players in the final week to avoid injury.
In this game, there's another preseason angle at work. Both the Jaguars and the Eagles are winless. No team wants to head into the regular season without having it's players taste victory. Sure, it's only preseason. Sure, it's meaningless. But a win of any kind, a good showing of any kind, builds confidence. One of the more popular betting angles is to play winless teams in week 3 and 4 against teams that have won already.
In this case, both teams are winless. Being week 3, you can expect both teams to go out and give 110% Thursday night. That's one of the reasons we are going to make a play on the Jaguars +7.5 over the Eagles. Both of the Jags preseason games have been close this year, losing by 3 to the Dolphins and by 1 to the Bucs. The Jags also put forth a decent defensive outing in week 1, and proved they could put points on the board last week against Tampa (23). The Eagles meanwhile, haven't shown much.
Lastly we look at the coaching matchup which clearly favors the Jags. Jack Del Rio is 17-9 in preseason games since 2003. He was 3-1 in every year except 2005 when he went 2-2. On the other hand, Andy Reid apparently doesn't put too much emphasis on preseason wins. He's 15-27 and hasn't had a winning preseason record in years.
You have two winless teams, both likely giving it their all which, that alone is enough to call for a close game, and you have one coach who clearly puts more importance on winning in the preseason than his opponent. We'll gladly take more than a touchdown here (+7.5) in a game the Jaguars can potentially win straight up. Don't read too much into the Vick situation. If anything, he figures to be a distraction.
We have no opinion on the total in this game, which is 37 currently.
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