Pro Football Lines – Geno Smith Goes Again as Pats Lay Big Number to Jets
The New York Jets are getting double-digits in the pro football lines on Thursday night, and part of the reason is that Geno Smith is a raw rookie still figuring out how to navigate his way around the NFL. And the New England Patriots are, well, the New England Patriots, This game kicks off at approximately 8:25 PM ET at Gillette Stadium, as both teams come off last-second wins.
In the pro football lines that have been posted by BetAnySports, you can see that the Pats lay a lot of lumber, despite their very narrow victory over the Buffalo Bills and another rookie quarterback last week:
New England Patriots -11.5
New York Jets +11.5
Over 42.5 Points -110
Under 42.5 Points -110
The Pats needed a field goal with five seconds left to beat Buffalo 23-21 last week, and there was some discouraging news on the injury front. Shane Vereen, the speedy back out of Cal who ran for over 100 yards for the first time in his brief career, suffered an injury to his forearm that is serious enough to require surgery, and so he is lost to the team for about eight weeks. Coach Bill Belichick hopes that Stevan Ridley (+450 at BetAnySports to score the first touchdown tonight) is close to being 100%, though he’s been bothered by a shoulder injury. Leon Washington has been banged up as well, so maybe LaGarrette Blount sees some appreciable playing time.
Tight end Rob Gronkowski, who had off-season back surgery, has been practicing but is not expected to play. And Danny Amendola, who did his best Wes Welker imitation by catching ten passes from Tom Brady last Sunday, re-aggravated his groin injury, so his effectiveness may be in question.
The Jets (a +440 underdog in NFL betting to win straight-up) were high-fiving each other after last Sunday’s 18-17 win over Tampa Bay, but if not for a gift penalty with seven seconds left that permitted new York to kick a game-winning field goal, how would the first performance of Geno Smith have been judges? He did complete 24 of 38 passes for 256 yards and added 47 more on the ground, but he also threw an interception that killed a potential TD drive and lost a fumble. To his credit, however he did show poise in getting the Jets into enemy territory on the final drive. For the time being, there is no quarterback controversy in the Meadowlands, as Mark Sanchez’s shoulder may prove to be more serious than was originally thought. Is Smith’s ability to run being respected as much as it should be? He is +3000 to score the first touchdown as per the pro football lines at BetAnySports.
Defense could actually dominate here. The Jets put up a very spirited effort, forcing Tampa Bay into a lot of mistakes, including two timeouts they had to burn on the first drive of the game, and held the Bucs to just twelve first downs. They also held Doug Martin, such a runaway hit on the ground last year as a rookie, to only 65 yards on 24 carries. The Patriots managed to limit Buffalo under 300 yards, even though E.J. Manuel, making his first NFL start for the Bills, was praised by many for the way he handled game management.
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