NFL betting: Jacksonville Jaguars take on AFC favorites betting spot

Things sure change quickly in the NFL. After Week 11 of the NFL season, the Tennessee Titans were 7-3. It looked as if Mike Vrabel was once again working his magic and getting the best out of a Tennessee team that looked rather dubious on paper. On the other hand, the Jacksonville Jaguars at the time were 3-7. It looked like another losing season and some were starting to wonder if Trevor Lawrence was being overrated as a potential. The Titans were the 1,000 favorites to win the division. The Jaguars pushed the division winning team 10 to 1.

Fast forward to now. The Titans have lost four straight games, being outscored by more than 11 points per game over that span. The opposite was true for Jaguar cars. They won three of their four games, scoring nearly 30 points per game. As a result, Jacksonville falls to the Tennessee game. The remaining teams have a face-to-face meeting. On top of all that, the Titans are now expected to be without quarterback Ryan Tunnehill for the rest of the season.

Jacksonville is now favored to win the AFC South

The Titans opened the week as slight favorites to win the division. However, after news of Tannehill broke, that soon changed. Jacksonville is now a -145 candidate to win the AFC South title at BetMGM.

Jacksonville is in for games on Thursday, as it’s a two-point underdog on the road against the New York Jets. It’s certainly a game to be won for the Jaguars, but even with a loss, they’re in a strong position to win the division.

Jacksonville and Tennessee both have a game left with the Houston Texans. The Texans have only one win on the season, but they’ve been pretty annoying in recent weeks against the Dallas Cowboys and Kansas City Chiefs. Tennessee is just a three-point favorite over Houston at home this weekend. However, it is a game that both teams need to win. At this point, you should feel more comfortable with business-minded Jaguars than Titans.

Story continues

Next weekend, the Titans will host the Dallas Cowboys. Dallas will be a big favorite in that game, especially with Malik Willis under the Titans center. If you assume the Titans lose to the Cowboys, Thursday’s Jacksonville vs. Jets game becomes a little less important.

It’s very likely that the division will come down to Week 18, when the Titans and Jaguars go head-to-head. Jacksonville will be the home team after beating Tennessee on the road in Week 14. As long as Jacksonville gets into the Week 18 Titans game in the standings, this will be a win-win situation for the Jaguars. Based on the fact that Tannehill is injured and the Jaguars are home, it is safe to feature the Jaguars as favorites in that game.

Put all of these factors together and you’ll see why Jacksonville is the betting favorite for division wins. If the Jaguars beat the Jets Thursday night, they’ll be in exceptional shape. Of course, wild things happen in the final weeks of the season. Just last year, these Jaguars destroyed Indianapolis’ season in Week 18 when they beat the Colts by 14.5 points.

However, if you are a Jaguars fan or are the owner of a card betting on the Jaguars winning the division, you are probably feeling confident right now. Crazy to say that just a month ago, they were 3-7 and had 10-to-1 odds of winning the division.