Jacksonville @ Dallas
This game offers an initial two strong and obvious points that are hard to ignore. In an of themselves they warrant a play in my opinion.
1.) A scheduling mismatch. Dallas played Monday night in Mexico and now must play on Thursday night. For all practical purposes, that leaves 2 days of preparation, Tuesday and Wednesday. In contrast, even though this game is early in the week (Thursday), the Jags have the luxury of having had a full week to prepared since their last game was also on a Thursday.
2.) A drastic gap in pre-season idealogies. Tom Coughlin is one of those pre-season gurus that insists on winning. Along the lines of Bill Parcells and Dennis Green, he has established himself as one that likes to win in these games. And like Green in his earlier years, Coughlin has been known to win big. In contrast, the Cowboys remain the worst, bar none, in pre-season no matter who their coach is.
Having pointed out the obvious, here's some more thoughts. Tom Coughlin is a taskmaster. Following his team's pre-season cycle and efforts in their first 3 games suggests to me that this week could be a huge win for them.
In their opener against Carolina, Jacksonville eeked out a narrow 2-point win over Carolina in a game where Seifort played out of pre-season character to silence his critics.
In game two, Jax took to New York only to catch the Superbowl losers at home fresh off a 14-0 shutout loss. Jax not only got routed but looked horrible in the process.
That game seemed to set up a nice play on the Jags as they were headed home with a decent 'rest' advantage over the Chiefs. I almost jumped on that game, but stayed off. One, the Chiefs are deep at QB and the Jags were still aching a bit. And two, I wasn't prepared to lay points yet with the Jags off a huge loss until they 'rode out' their funk.
In game three vs. the Chiefs, the Jags fell way behind early trailing by double-digits at half time. Then, finally, Tommy got their attention. They came out the second half a different team and pulled off the rally.
I believe that second-half performance is the kind of spunk we can expect from them this week. Coughlin hasn't had his annual pre-season blowout yet, and I think this is a good spot for him to get it, especially as it is the final week before the real deal.
Coughlin is 5-1 SU and ATS in his final pre-season game. He is 2-0 SU and ATS vs. Dallas in pre-season--both of which were in the final week and both of which were sizeable victories winning 42-20 and 27-6.
On the other side, the always-horrific Cowboys are off an uncanny win last week--and a big one--versus the Raiders. Just asked San Fran how much zap the Raiders can take out of you. With 2 days to prepare for Couglin's Pit Bulls, zap is the last thing they need to lose. It reeks of a blowout to me.
Recommendation:
Go ahead and grab it at minus four. The line is fair, and is lower than I would've expected--presumably due to the Cowboy's Monday Night showing. I don't expect for the line to drop, and holding out for that to happen could be vain and/or cost you a half-point or more.
2* Jags -4 over Cowboys
dave
This game offers an initial two strong and obvious points that are hard to ignore. In an of themselves they warrant a play in my opinion.
1.) A scheduling mismatch. Dallas played Monday night in Mexico and now must play on Thursday night. For all practical purposes, that leaves 2 days of preparation, Tuesday and Wednesday. In contrast, even though this game is early in the week (Thursday), the Jags have the luxury of having had a full week to prepared since their last game was also on a Thursday.
2.) A drastic gap in pre-season idealogies. Tom Coughlin is one of those pre-season gurus that insists on winning. Along the lines of Bill Parcells and Dennis Green, he has established himself as one that likes to win in these games. And like Green in his earlier years, Coughlin has been known to win big. In contrast, the Cowboys remain the worst, bar none, in pre-season no matter who their coach is.
Having pointed out the obvious, here's some more thoughts. Tom Coughlin is a taskmaster. Following his team's pre-season cycle and efforts in their first 3 games suggests to me that this week could be a huge win for them.
In their opener against Carolina, Jacksonville eeked out a narrow 2-point win over Carolina in a game where Seifort played out of pre-season character to silence his critics.
In game two, Jax took to New York only to catch the Superbowl losers at home fresh off a 14-0 shutout loss. Jax not only got routed but looked horrible in the process.
That game seemed to set up a nice play on the Jags as they were headed home with a decent 'rest' advantage over the Chiefs. I almost jumped on that game, but stayed off. One, the Chiefs are deep at QB and the Jags were still aching a bit. And two, I wasn't prepared to lay points yet with the Jags off a huge loss until they 'rode out' their funk.
In game three vs. the Chiefs, the Jags fell way behind early trailing by double-digits at half time. Then, finally, Tommy got their attention. They came out the second half a different team and pulled off the rally.
I believe that second-half performance is the kind of spunk we can expect from them this week. Coughlin hasn't had his annual pre-season blowout yet, and I think this is a good spot for him to get it, especially as it is the final week before the real deal.
Coughlin is 5-1 SU and ATS in his final pre-season game. He is 2-0 SU and ATS vs. Dallas in pre-season--both of which were in the final week and both of which were sizeable victories winning 42-20 and 27-6.
On the other side, the always-horrific Cowboys are off an uncanny win last week--and a big one--versus the Raiders. Just asked San Fran how much zap the Raiders can take out of you. With 2 days to prepare for Couglin's Pit Bulls, zap is the last thing they need to lose. It reeks of a blowout to me.
Recommendation:
Go ahead and grab it at minus four. The line is fair, and is lower than I would've expected--presumably due to the Cowboy's Monday Night showing. I don't expect for the line to drop, and holding out for that to happen could be vain and/or cost you a half-point or more.
2* Jags -4 over Cowboys
dave