Washington Redskins at Jacksonville Jaguars

Written by Jack Jones - Google +

The Jacksonville Jaguars (8-6) look to keep pace with the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC South race when they host the Washington Redskins (5-9) in Week 16. Jacksonville had a chance to clinch the division last week, but a 34-24 loss to the Colts prevented that from happening and now they’ll need to win and get some help to dethrone Indy. The Jaguars have not won a division title since 1999. The lines for this contest show us odds of Jacksonville -7 over Washington with a total set of 46.5 points.

Jacksonville had their chances last week against Indy, but a poor third quarter really did them in. David Garrard fumbled twice on a pair of botched handoffs to Maurice Jones-Drew, and he was also intercepted in that same quarter. Jones-Drew came into the game with six straight 100-yard rushing effort, but was held to a season-low 67 yards against one of the worst teams in the league against the run. Jacksonville has still won five of their last seven games overall which has had them right in the middle of the playoff hunt considering it’s been a down year for the Colts.

What the Jaguars will need to happen the rest of the way is to win their final two games of the season, coupled with a Colts loss to either Oakland this week or Tennessee next week. Jacksonville remains two games back in the wild-card race behind the Jets and Ravens, so that is likely out of the question. Head coach Jack Del Rio certainly hopes his team responds better than they did last year late in the season. The Jaguars were 7-5 with wild-card hopes, but lost their final four games of the season. Jacksonville ranks third in the NFL at 151.4 rushing yards per game, and they’ll get another shot at a poor run defense Sunday.

Washington has been really soft against the run all season, especially of late. The Redskins allow 134.4 yards per game on the ground overall, including 163.7 over their last six games. Albert Haynesworth has been suspended for the remainder of the season, and now Washington has placed linemen Maake Kemoeatu and Phillip Daniels on the injured reserve to make this team even thinner up front. Offensively, head coach Mike Shanahan has elected to sit Donovan McNabb the rest of the way every since his team was eliminated from the playoffs.

Rex Grossman made his first start in two years last Sunday and actually performed very well. Grossman threw for 322 yards and 4 touchdowns, but he also threw a pair of interceptions which proved costly. Without Grossman though, the Redskins would have never had a chance as they erased a 30-14 second half deficit to tie the game at 30-30. The defense went on to give up a last-minute field goal to the Cowboys which result in their fourth straight loss, 30-33. The team is happy with their decision to go with Grossman because after scoring just 13.8 points per game over their previous four contests, their 30-point outburst last week was a season-high.

BetUS Projected Score: Jacksonville 27 – Washington 20

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