Philadelphia Eagles face the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday at Wembley Stadium in London in a first meeting between the two sides since 2014. That game ended 34-17 in favour of the Philadelphia Eagles but the Jaguars will hope to return to winning ways in this game. The Eagles squandered a 17-0 lead in the 4th quarter to the Carolina Panthers to eventually lose 21-17 at home. They will be itching to return to the field to erase the memories of such a painful loss in the final London game of this season’s NFL International Series.
Carson Wentz was magnificent in the loss to the Panthers with two touchdowns and 310 passing yards. He has totalled 1502 passing yards with a 10:1 touchdown to interception ratio in five games of the year. In the last four games, he has registered nothing less than 300 passing yards in three of them. Zach Ertz leads in receiving with 57 receptions for 618 yards and 2 touchdowns. Last week he brought in 138 receiving yards, while on the rushing offence, Wendell Smallwood produced 32 rushing yards in the absence of Jay Ajayi. Philadelphia are averaging 22 points per game and are ranked 22nd in the league and are allowing 19.71 points per game, ranked 6th in the NFL.
The Jaguars are looking really poor since their victory over the Patriots having given up 90 points over the last three games. They are 1-4 ATS in their last five and 1-4 ATS in their last five games in October. The Jaguars current skid has coincided with Blake Bortles wretched form. He fumbled the ball twice and had to be pulled for Cody Kessler in the rough 20-7 loss to the Texans last week. Kessler didn’t really do much better fumbling the ball once, throwing one touchdown and one INT. Fournette’s absence has impacted heavily on the Jaguars offence. T.J. Yeldon has 327 rushing yards in the year and only totalled 28 yards on 12 carries last week. Their leading receiver, Dede Westbrook has 31 receptions, 404 receiving yards on the year but could only managed a combined 55 receiving yards over the last two games. They are currently allowing 121.86 rushing yards per game which ranks at 25th in the NFL and 20.86 points per game which ranks 9th in the NFL.
Eagles Jay Ajayi and Derek Barnett are out for the season. Sidney Jones is doubtful while Corey Graham, Haloti Ngata, Darren Sproles are questionable. LB Donald Payne is out for the Jaguars while Tre Herndon, D.J. Hayden, and James O’Shaughnessy are questionable. It is unlikely that RB Leonard Fournette will feature due to a hamstring injury.
Verdict
Both teams arrive here in London on a 3-4 record. Desperation may seep through their drive in the quest for a win to level for the year as we head into the half-way stage of the season. There are already rumours of dissension in the Jaguars locker room and a loss for them may be the final nail on their hopes of making the playoffs. A loss for the Eagles however does not rule them out for the push for a divisional title. With 14 or fewer points in 3 successive games the Jaguar’s offence is in terrible form, so the smart pick will be a victory for the Eagles.
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