Jacksonville vs. Tampa Bay selection

Jacksonville vs. Tampa Bay selection

Jacksonville vs. Tampa Bay UNDER 36.5

It will be an all-Florida affair at Raymond James Stadium Saturday night, as Tampa Bay hosts Jacksonville in the second preseason game for both teams. In a PRO INFO SPORTS winning 2 STAR SELECTION, Jon Gruden’s Bucs squeaked out a 20-17 OT victory on the road against the Titans in Nashville last week. The Jaguars began their season by beating the other Sunshine State team, downing Miami 27-17, at home in Jacksonville for another PRO INFO SPORTS winner with a 1 STAR SELECTION on the “over”.

This week, we’ll look for the points to not be quite so plentiful. The Jags are once again stout on defense this year, and certainly won’t be overwhelmed by Tampa’s offense that is still struggling with an injury-ravaged offensive line. Rookie running back and first-round draft choice Carnell "Cadillac" Williams should see his first action as a Buc, but he’ll probably be able to count his touches on one hand.
The Jaguars don’t figure to fare much better themselves on offense. They’ll be looking for a stronger effort out of quarterback Byron Leftwich, as he connected on just 3-of-7 passes for 32 yards against the Dolphins. He failed to execute a scoring drive, as he is still trying to pick up the new offense. Jack Del Rio’s squad will again be without running back Fred Taylor, giving the Bucs defense one less weapon to worry about.

We have plenty of numbers that indicate a low-scoring defensive struggle here. Del Rio has gone “under” in all 4 of his road games as Jacksonville coach, and 7 of his 9 games overall. All 4 of the Buccaneers games went “under” last year, and it took overtime last week to send the game “over”. Also, we note that Tampa has gone “under” in 8 of 9 Week 2 preseason games, and 22 of 28 games have gone “under” with the Bucs as an exhibition favorite. These teams have met in each of the last 3 preseasons and all 3 games have easily gone “under” by an average of more than 14 points a game! We like the chances of these teams playing to form, especially with an O/U line that is higher than in their 3 previous practice games.