David Banks
Dolphins / Jets Over
Week 6 of the 2011 NFL season closes shop at MetLife Stadium where the New York Jets (2-3, 1-4 ATS) will look to bounce back from a devastating three-game road trip in their AFC East clash with the Miami Dolphins (0-4, 0-3-1 ATS) under the bright lights of Monday Night Football; kick-off is set for 8:30 ET on ESPN.
Miami went into its bye in Week 5 losers of four in a row and down a quarterback. On top of it, the Fins failed to produce a pointspread victory for its betting backers by putting forth an 0-3-1 ATS tally which will have many holding their noses up at the prospect of grabbing the points with them on MNF. Having said that, Tony Sparano’s outfit has been much better against the closing pointspread on the road than at home covering the closing number at an 11-4-1 clip their L/16 as a visitor. On top of being very familiar with what the Jets will attempt to do being division rivals, the Dolphins possess the ground game with Daniel Thomas and Reggie Bush that should be able to take advantage of New York’s 31st ranked rushing defense that’s been gouged to the tune of 134.8 YPG on the season.
The troops Rex Ryan has unleashed upon the NFL in 2011 look to be far from the ones that took to the gridiron in each of the last two AFC Championship Games. The Jets were a pound the pigskin down your throat type of club the last two seasons, but entering tonight, NY has managed to run for an average of just 76.2 YPG (#31) and will be running up against a Fins defense that’s better at stopping the run (#14 at 107.5 YPG). Where QB Mark Sanchez and the offense might have success however will be through the air since Miami has been gouged by opposing passing attacks to the tune of 307 yards per game (#31). Miami’s had problems executing its red zone offense all season long (#26 of 32), so if the Jets can’t limit new starter Matt Moore, we might as well just turn the page on what was expected to be another stellar Jets stop unit.
The road team has won six of these division rivals L/7 overall meetings with both the Jets and Dolphins scoring outright road wins and covers last season. In fact, Miami’s 3-1 SU & 3-0-1 ATS its L/4 trips to MetLife Stadium. Having said that, Brandon Marshall and his mates have covered only one of their L/6 AFC East tussles and stand 1-3 SU & ATS their L/4 on Monday Night. New York’s 2-0 SU & 1-1 ATS at home in 2011 and stands a rock solid 9-3 ATS against the L/12 losing teams it’s faced, but has only covered once in its L/5 MNF spots. The ‘over’ has cashed in each of Miami’s L/4 Monday Night appearances and checks in at 4-1 in the Jets L/5.
OC Dooley
Winnipeg Jets +110
Tonight is the second home game for the Winnipeg franchise that prior to this campaign was based in Atlanta. To give you an idea surrounding the excitement of the NHL returning to the city for the first time since 1996, there were celebrations in the streets prior to Winnipeg’s home opener last Sunday. Not only have the “new” version of the Jets sold out every home game this campaign, they have a waiting list of more than 8,000 fans ready to cram inside the smallest facility currently in the league. The return to Winnipeg has not been easy for the Jets who are the only squad throughout the NHL to not have registered a single point in the standings as they have been outscored by a combined 13-5 margin. Head coach Claude Noel feels that some of his personnel thought through unique circumstances that they were to be given quote “free passes” and the Jets certainly have not been given any up to this point. But the bottom line is that there is extra energy for this squad when playing in front of sellout HOME crowds which this franchise did not enjoy when based in Atlanta (only 17 home wins a year ago). I want all of you to be aware that in this series Pittsburgh has held the upper hand (12-1 tear) but the Penguins tonight will be WITHOUT stars Sidney Crosby (concussion) and Evgani Malkin (knee). Up to this point Pittsburgh has actually played the most games in the league and have not had more than one-day off between contests. One would think that the Penguins should be a prohibitive road favorite tonight but that is not the case as Winnipeg plays game-two in front of the home fans who waited since 1996 for professional hockey to return