NFL Football Betting: New York Jets at Buffalo Bills
The second Thursday night football game of the NFL season and while the teams involved aren’t exactly Super Bowl contenders they are fairly heated rivals. That alone should make for an entertaining game. Both teams are off of losses in their opening week–the Jets lost to Cincinnati at home by 1 point, pushing against the spread. The Bills lost 13-7 at Baltimore, failing to cover as +3 underdogs. Buffalo did a decent job on defense but their offense was pitiful putting up a total of 160 yards of total offense (65 rushing, 95 passing).
The Buffalo Bills were 9-7 in 2014 but slipped to 8-8 last year–Rex Ryan’s first as head coach. A bigger concern is that the team was mediocre in just about every statistical category–particularly on defense which is supposed to be Ryan’s specialty. It might be premature to suggest that he’s on the ‘hot seat’. Beyond the rankings there was some very subtle signs of progress on both sides of the ball. The defense improved their yards per game allowed while the offense increased their PPG by 3. Tyrod Taylor is a very talented quarterback that showed a lot last season–and was rewarded with a 6 year contract extension worth $90 million. With that kind of money he’s got to do *much* better than the 15 for 22 and 95 yards he put up against Baltimore last week.
New York showed very significant improvement in Todd Bowles’ first year as head coach. The Jets went 4-12 SU/6-9-1 ATS in Rex Ryan’s final year at the helm. In Bowles’ first season the Jets went 10-6 SU/8-6-2 ATS. The rivalry doesn’t end with the head coaches–the Jets’ starting quarterback used to be the Bills’ starting quarterback. Ryan Fitzpatrick revitalized his career with the Jets. New York has done a great job putting the pieces in place and there could very well be more improvement this season.
That being said, we’ll back Buffalo in this game. Thursday night home teams are very strong in the NFL–more so now than Monday Night Football home teams. The Bills need a better showing this week particularly on offense and they’ve dominated head to head play of late winning five straight SU/ATS.
BET BUFFALO BILLS +1 OVER NEW YORK JETS
