NFL Football Preview: San Francisco 49ers vs. Jacksonville Jaguars

NFL football comes to London, England this weekend as the San Francisco 49ers and Jacksonville Jaguars do battle at Wembley Stadium. The San Francisco 49ers were last year’s Super Bowl runner up and have been on a solid run of late winning four straight games to keep pace with Seattle in the NFC West. The Niners are 5-2 on the season and trail the Seahawks by one game. Jacksonville is at the other end of the spectrum–they’re undoubtedly the worst team in the NFL. Jacksonville is 0-7 SU/1-6 ATS with their only point spread cover coming by virtue of a historically large betting line against Denver (+26′).

So what can you say about Jacksonville? They’re at the bottom of the NFL in most offensive categories and near the bottom in most defensive categories. Their starting quarterback, Blaine Gabbart, has been injured and when he’s played has been ineffective. In his absence they’ve turned to journeyman Chad Henne who might be a servicable backup on a better team but is hardly the guy to jump start an offense. Jacksonville does have some nice talent in the receiving corps including their top draft pick from last season Justin Blackmon. The problem is that they don’t have a good offensive line and a weak running game.

At some point Jacksonville will be getting so many points that they might be worth ‘taking’ but not here. The Niners have been playing great football in the past few weeks with Colin Kaepernick regaining his impressive form of last season. The weather in London may not be overly hospitable (rain, wind) and the ‘pitch’ that is more frequently used for soccer is definitely not a ‘fast track’. Those are minor concerns in our view and this has all of the earmarks of a San Francisco rout and the fact it’s on a neutral field gives us a somewhat reasonable price. It’s hard to see Jacksonville doing much offensively against the San Francisco defense and it’s hard to see that Jags’ defense doing much to slow down the Niners’ attack. We’ll look for San Francisco to win and cover in a game that goes ‘Over’ the posted total.

BET SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS -17 OVER JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS
BET SAN FRANCISCO/JACKSONVILLE OVER 40