Andrew Ortenberg
Show Bio
The Jacksonville Jaguars were one of the biggest disappointments of the 2018 season. After making the AFC Championship game the previous year and coming up one play short of the Super Bowl, the team fell off hard this past season. They went 5-11, and ended up finishing in last place in the resurgent AFC South. They had a terrible year against the spread, going 5-9-2 for the season, a cash rate of right around 35%. Their defense was once again the strength of the team, and one thing that was very profitable was betting the under in their games. Overall, the under went 10-6 in their games. They covered their first two games, but ended up hitting a really rough patch in the middle of their season where they failed to cover a game for seven straight weeks. Now, let’s dive deeper now on the Jacksonville Jaguars Betting Recap.
Jacksonville Jaguars Recap
Following the shocking success of their 2017 season, they entered 2018 with high expectations. Things got off to a solid start when they picked up a road win over the Giants in Week 1, covering the three point spread. Their first real test came the next week when they hosted the Patriots in an AFC Championship Game rematch. The betting public was all over the Patriots, but the Jaguars easily covered and won the game outright by a score of 31-20.
The offense was looking more than competent, and the team was riding high. Unfortunately, it would all go down hill from there. Blake Bortles regressed significantly, and lost more confidence every single week. They lost eight of their next nine games, including some ugly ones like a 40-7 loss to the Cowboys. They covered just one spread that entire time, in a win over the Jets, and pushed in two other games.
The offense falling off a cliff was good news for under bettors, and you were able to turn a nice profit by the end of the season if you had been blindly betting their unders. After they put up 31 points on the Patriots it looked like they were destined for another playoff run, but the team quickly fell apart and so too did the locker room, which descended into chaos.
Bortles played so bad that he ended up getting benched in favor of Cody Kessler toward the end of the season, although he did win the job back at the very end. The Jags have made no secret of the fact that they don’t see Bortles in their long-term plans, and at this point it would be a shock if he was brought back.
The defense looked like its dominant self at times, but looked lifeless at others. Veteran players on defense quickly became frustrated with the offense’s ineptitude, and it often looked like there were effort problems on defense down the stretch. They also endured a bunch of drama with running back Leonard Fournette, and even voided the guarantees in his contract after he was suspended for a game.
Super Bowl Or Bust?
Next year will be an extremely important one for Jacksonville. Doug Marrone was able to keep his job for 2019, although offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett wasn’t so lucky, as he was fired mid-season. Another disappointing campaign, and Marrone will likely be out of a job as well. They’re the only team in the division without an established franchise quarterback, and face by far the most uncertainty of all the teams in the AFC South. With Bortles very unlikely to be back, the team will either be starting a veteran acquisition like Nick Foles, or a rookie at quarterback. Neither option is overly appealing, but the Jags have been linked heavily to Foles. Whatever they do they need to do something that will cause the defense to buy back in and believe again. It’s hard to predict what their win total will open at, because it all depends on what they do at quarterback. Bet Online opened them at 40/1 in their earliest Super Bowl odds, which actually seems a bit too generous.
