The Pittsburgh Steelers play the Jacksonville Jaguars at the TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Florida on Sunday 11/18/18.
The Jaguars have lost six out of their last seven games SU and enter this game with a five game losing streak. Meanwhile, the Steelers are trending the opposite direction with five straight wins.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are rolling right now.They have won five straight games and may be peaking at the right time. That’s in contrast to their opponents on Sunday, the Jacksonville Jaguars, who have lost five in a row and are in a tailspin right now. Pittsburgh has the opportunity to put the final nail in Jacksonville’s playoff coffin.
The Steelers will be playing without star running back Le’Veon Bell the rest of the season. Bell didn’t sign the Steelers offer as Tuesday’s 4pm ET deadline expired. Although Bell is a big loss to Pittsburgh, his absence has been mitigated by the emergence of sophomore running back James Conner who has 771 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns on the season. With Conner leading the ground game and Ben Roethlisberger 112 yards away from his 13th straight 3,000 passing yard season, the Steelers have been able to find success this season.
As we said earlier, the Jacksonville Jaguars have lost five in a row and they look like they are fading fast. This wasn’t expected from the Jaguars after the team reached the conference championship game last season. But instead of building on that success, they have sputtered in the last five weeks.
Blake Bortles hasn’t given his team the chance to win games. The former Central Florida standout is completing just 61.3% of his passes for a total of 250 yards per game on the average. Bortles’ 84.9 passer rating ranks only 26th in the entire NFL while his 3:2 touchdown to interception ratio is one of the worst among the league’s starting quarterbacks. But while Bortles is struggling, the Jaguars were glad to see Leonard Fournette return from a six game absence. Fournette ran for a score and caught a touchdown pass during the Jaguars’ loss to the Colts.
The Steelers are 5-0 SU in their last five games played and 9-0-1 SU in their last 10 games on the road. The Jaguars are 0-5 in their last five games played but are 8-3 SU in their last 11 home games. Head to head, the Jaguars are 6-3 SU in their last 9 games against the Steelers but are 1-4 SU in their last five games when playing Pittsburgh in Jacksonville.
The Jaguars are fading fast and with plenty of issues to fix, there isn’t enough time to turn things around. This is very much looking like a lost season for the Jaguars. On the other hand, the Steelers have showed that they can consistently win away from home. With Roethlisberger and Conner hitting their strides, the Steelers should continue to roll and the Pittsburgh machine isn’t going to slow down anytime soon.
Jacksonville has lost 5 in a row and 6 of 7. They can’t stop their opponents from scoring and their offense can’t keep up with their offensive woes. They are taking all these against one of the hottest teams in the NFL and that’s not a good idea. We’re picking the Pittsburgh Steelers to beat Jacksonville Jaguars on 11/18/18.
The Steelers are 5-0 ATS in their last 5 games played and 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games on the road. The Jaguars are 0-4-1 ATS in their last five games and 2-4 ATS in their last six games at home. Head to head, the Jaguars are 8-3 ATS in their last 11 games against the Steelers and 9-3 ATS in their last 12 home games against Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh is 4-0 ATS in their last four games after an SU win, 4-0 ATS in their last four games after accumulating at least 250 passing yards in their previous game. The Jaguars are 0-3-1 in their last four games after an SU loss. An interesting trend is that the road team is 5-0 ATS in the last five games between these teams.
The Steelers are 9-0-1 SU in their last 10 road games and have won those games by an average winning margin of 7.9 points per game. On the other hand, the Jaguars have lost 5 straight games SU and they have lost by an average margin of 14.2 points per game. Prediction: Steelers -5
The over is 8-3 in Pittsburgh’s last 11 games played but the under is 16-5 in their last 21 road games. Meanwhile, the total has gone under in 4 out of the last 6 home games for Jacksonville. Head to head, the total has gone under in 7 of their last 9 games played in Jacksonville.
The under is 11-1 in the last 12 road games of the Steelers against teams with losing home records and the under is also 20-6 in their last 26 games as favorites. The under is also 12-5 in the last 17 games of Jacksonville against AFC opponents and the total has gone under in in five of six games where the Jaguars are underdogs between 3.5 points to 10 points.
Pittsburgh’s defense has been very solid lately, allowing just 275 or fewer years in their last 4 games played. Pittsburgh’s explosive offense makes you want to think twice about the under though. But with Conner possibly missing this game if he doesn’t clear the concussion protocol, the under is a good pick here. Prediction: Under 46.5
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