Jacksonville Jaguars at Indianapolis Colts Betting Preview
Opening Line: Colts -5
Total Odds: 48.5
Time: 1 PM EST Sunday December 19, 2010 on CBS
The Colts (7-6) have been a playoff mainstay for the past several years, but if they lose this game to Jaguars (8-5) they may miss out on the post-season. The Jags have a 1 game lead over the Colts in the AFC South and they already beat them earlier in the season. Peyton Manning snapped out of his slump last Sunday passing for 319 yards with 2 TD and 0 INT and with the issues the Indy D has he may have to put up numbers like that again for the Colts to win.
In their last games the Jaguars beat the Oakland Raiders with 38-31 and the Colts beat the Tennessee Titans 31-28.
This season the Jaguars have been a solid betting team going 9-4 ATS while the Colts have only been decent at 6-6-1 ATS. Jacksonville has covered the spread in their last 6 games and they have covered the spread in 5 of their last 6 games against the Colts in Indianapolis.
The main reason that Manning may have to light up the scoreboard to win is that they have not been able to stop the run this season, as they have the league’s 29th rushing defense. They gave up 121 rushing yards last week to the Titans and this week they will be facing Maurice Jones-Drew and Rashad Jennings, who each rushed for over 100 yards last week. Not only that, but even though the Colts have the league’s 8th ranked pass defense they allowed Kerry Collins to torch them for 244 yards with 3 TD and 0 INT last week. Jags’ QB David Garrard is not a great passing QB, but he had 3 TD and only 1 INT last week and if he can limit his mistakes and help the rushing attack they have a great chance to win this game.
Manning will have to carry the offensive load since the Colts’ rushing offense ranks dead last in the league. That may not be a bad thing since the Jag’s pass D only ranks 28th in the league. Last week the Jags did beat the Raiders, but they gave up 323 passing yards and 153 rushing yards. The Indy RB duo of Joseph Addai and Donald Brown may be able to help Manning out since the Jaguars’ rushing D struggled last week. In week 4 the Jags beat the Colts 31-28, as Jones-Drew rushed for 105 yards and the Colts committed 2 turnovers and if those things happen again the Colts will likely lose again.
In some other betting trends for this big AFC South match up:
Jacksonville is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 road games, 2-7 ATS in their last 9 games facing a team with a winning record, and has an Over record of 6-1 in their last 7 road games.
Indianapolis is 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games, 7-3 ATS in their last 10 games as a home favorite of 3.5-10, and has an Over record of 3-0-1 in their last 4 games.
Our Selection :Sure the Colts play better at home and yes Jacksoville's pass defense is still a concern, but the key to this game will be Indianapolis' ability to stop the Jags rushing attack. The Jaguars beat the Colts 31-28 in Week 4 with a dominating running game rushing for 174 yards on 35 carries. If anything Jacksonville's ground attack has improved as the season has gone along, rushing for over 200 yards in each of their last 3 games. The Colts may win this game, but the Jags will be able to battle throughout and keep this within the point spread. Take Jacksonville +5 5Dimes.com.