JAX JAGS +6 Jacksonville hits the road after two straight blowout losses at home and a bye week last week. This is a good thing. The Jaguars have performed miserably at home but they have done much better on the highway, winning once at Indianapolis and losing in overtime at Minnesota. The trip west is not a big deal because they had the week off so any travel disadvantage is negated. Going back to last season, the Jaguars are 5-2-1 ATS in their last eight road games. The Raiders are also off to a 1-4 start following their loss at Atlanta last week. A loss is a loss but this one was a devastating one as Oakland put everything it had into that game and should have walked out with a victory. Instead, Atlanta is still undefeated despite getting outgained by 188 total yards. It will be tough for the Raiders to recover from that especially with a divisional game on deck. They won their last home game against the Steelers but it was handed to them as Oakland was outgained by 112 total yards. The Jaguars offense is again not very productive but they should be able to have some success here. Oakland's defense was outstanding last week against the Falcons as they allowed just 286 total yards but I do not expect a repeat because despite that solid effort, the defense is still ranked 24th in the NFL. For the Jaguars, Maurice Jones-Drew is still very effective having already accumulated 408 yards rushing on 84 carries (4.9 ypc) and he is in line for another big day which sets up the passing game. Last season the Jacksonville defense finished sixth in the NFL in total yards but has dropped to 29th this season. Jaguars defensive coordinator Mel Tucker said he hasn't seen signs of losing hope. "Guys are very upbeat every day and very, very competitive," he said. "We've got a lot of pride. We know what we need to do to improve and then the focus is on that every day." They have been banged up but the week off helped and while linebacker Daryl Smith will not be back as expected, they will be in better shape. As we saw last week, Oakland tends to play up to the competition but it also plays down to the competition as you can see by the Raiders going 1-12 ATS in their last 13 games against teams that are getting outscored by 10 ppg or more. The Jaguars fall into a great situation where we play on road underdogs of 3.5 to 10 points that are averaging 260 or fewer total ypg, after allowing 400 or more total yards in their previous game. This situation is 32-9 ATS (78 percent) since 1983
