Jacksonville Jaguars at New York Jets Line

The New York Jets rallied back from a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the Dallas Cowboys 27-24 in their season opener. They’re hoping not to dig such a big hole in this week’s contest against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Odds makers aren’t expecting the Jets to have much trouble this week, listing them as a 10-point favorite with the total set at 38.

The Jets capitalized on Dallas’ mistakes down the stretch and made a big special teams play to come up with an improbable victory. While they were happy to get it, they know they’ll have to play better this week in order to remain undefeated.

The Jaguars were impressive for the most part in their 16-14 Week 1 win over the Tennessee Titans. They jumped out to a 13-0 lead and held on in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score leads you to believe. The Jags had the ball over 19 minutes longer than the Titans.

The key to the victory was a dominant performance on the ground. Led by Maurice Jones-Drew, who rushed for 97 yards and a touchdown, the Jags racked up 163 rushing yards. Jacksonville could have done more damage on the dirt, but Jones-Drew was held out in the fourth quarter for precautionary reasons.

Jacksonville’s defense, which ranked 22nd in the league against the run last year with 121.6 yards allowed per game, was equally impressive as it held Titans’ star running back Chris Johnson to 24 yards.

The Jets, which have ranked in the top four in rushing the last two seasons, were held to just 45 yards on the ground in their opener, but Jacksonville knows better than to sleep on New York’s rushing attack.

The Jags are hoping to have two-time Pro Bowl end Aaron Kampman back on the field this week to help slow down New York’s rushing attack and to put some heat on Mark Sanchez, who was sacked four times Sunday. Jacksonville only got to Matt Hasselbeck twice last week.

Kampman is currently listed as questionable as he continues to recover from an ACL injury. The Jags could certainly use him on the field as they ranked 30th in the NFL last year with only 26 sacks.

The Jaguars have gotten the better of the Jets lately. In fact, they have won the last three meetings and five of the last six. The most recent game in the series was played on Nov. 15, 2009, a 24-22 Jacksonville victory at New York.

It is worth noting that the Jaguars have covered the spread in each of the last six matchups in this series.

After failing to cover the spread last week, the Jets fell to 4-15 against the number in their last 19 home games in the first two weeks of the season. The Jets, who have lost by an average of 5.5 points in this situation, will be facing this trend again this week.

As far as the total is concerned, the over must be considered. The Jets are now 15-5 over in their last 20 games.

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