Denver (+1.5) at -105 @ Jacksonville (-1.5) at -105; Total set at 39.5
Both of these teams could struggle in 2010 with question marks all over the field, but looking at a one game situation objectively, some of those question marks can be answered.
What do you do if you’re the Denver Broncos? You have just watched two of your starting RB’s get hurt in camp and will miss some time and on top of that, you just lost your leader on defence and your best player in Elvis Dumervil to a torn pectoral injury that will keep him out of football for at least 4 months. You lost your playmaking WR Brandon Marshall in the off-season and you don’t have a legitimate starting QB on your roster with Brady Quinn, Kyle Orton and Tim Tebow. Tebow does get to make his professional debut in Florida, the state he has owned the past few seasons, but likely only going to play as part of a gimmick package called the “Tebow package,” Jacksonville will be ready for a lot of draws, and triple options. That is if they have RB’s healthy enough to effectively execute the option.
After starting 6-0 last season and then stumbled mightily to the finish line. They surprised everyone with how great their defence was, but once holes were found and exploited, every opponent of the Broncos took advantage. Jacksonville might not be able to pile up big offensive numbers against the Broncos as they are quite weak themselves with minimal playmakers, but they do have Maurice Jones Drew at RB, and he is a machine. QB David Garrard has worked on his accuracy this off-season and with his ability to scramble and move the pocket, he is always a threat on the ground. He should excel in this game against a Broncos defence without their leader in Dumervil.
With a spread like this it is basically a pick’em game and given that home field advantage in the NFL usually equates to around 3 points for NFL teams, the odds makers are suggesting that Denver is still the better team. That may be true, but playing on the road in Week 1 with so many questions and injuries to deal with just isn’t an easy task for any team, let alone a below average Denver squad.
Although, they could always fluke out in the final minute on a tipped Hail-Mary like they did in Week 1 of NFL betting last season against the Bengals, but what are the odds of that happening again.
Take the home Jaguars here at -1.5 as they need to get all the wins against sub-par teams in order to compete in the AFC south.
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