Jets
vs.
Bills
Week 2
NFL Thursday
Free Pick
9/15/16
The Buffalo Bills will host the New York Jets on this weeks edition of Thursday Night Football. The Bills opened as -3 point home favorites and the early action has dropped that number to -1.5. The total is 41.5, down from an opener of 42.5.
Both of these teams are in off opening week losses and face the possibility of starting the 2016 season 0-2. The Jets dropped their home opener to the Bengals 23-22 while the Bills dropped their Game at Baltimore, 13-7. A year ago the Jets were 10-6 while the Bills were 8-8. However, Rex Ryan did manage to beat his former team twice, taking a 22-17 decision in New Jersey and winning by an identical score of 22-17 at home in Buffalo.
So how important is this Game? Obviously, being a divisional Game, it’s huge. But consider this as well. Teams that start the year 0-2 have roughly an 11 percent chance of making the playoffs! So yeah, no need to over dramatize the importaNCe of this one. It’s HUGE.
While both teams should be just fine on the defensive side of the ball this year, there has to be some early season coNCern for the Bills offense. They managed just 160 yards last week against the Ravens, their worst performance in over a decade and this comes on the heels of being 12th in the NFL in points scored a year ago. Obviously, that will be the key to the Bills success this week. If the offense can’t get things moving against a very good defense in the Jets, it could be season over before we even get through September.
The Jets offense didn’t struggle the way the Bills did. Unfortunately, Former Jet kicker Mike Nugent puNChed one through with 47 seconds left to lift the Bengals to a 1 point win over the Jets, putting GAng Green in the very same position as the Bills……..facing an 0-2 start.
Our Pick – Revenge never works quite as well in the NFL as it does in college football. In fact, we rarely mention it for NFL Games. However, if there was ever a spot where revenge could be a motivating factor in an NFL Game, this would have to be one of those spots. Not only did the Bills hand the Jets two losses last season, but it was that final Game of the season on January 3rd, where the 10-6 Jets were eliminated from the playoffs by these Bills.
The revenge angle as well as the fact that we simply feel that the Jets are the better team on both sides of the ball have us taking the Jets here. In fact, rather than take the small spot, we’ll take the Jets on the money line as this play is based on the Jets winning straight up. Jets +110