Both the reigning Super Bowl champions Philadelphia Eagles and the Jacksonville Jaguars have questions to answer when they face off at Wembley on Sunday.
This fixture was just a Tom Brady drive away from being the Super Bowl match-up back in January, but for both the Jacksonville Jaguars and Philadelphia Eagles head to Wembley looking to put their houses in order.
This game looked a mouth-watering fixture when it was announced that the Super Bowl champions would be taking on the AFC title contenders, who were only a few minutes from making it to the big game themselves.
It’s certainly a must-win game, but for all the wrong reasons as both teams sit on 3-4 and another defeat would certainly put their play-off prospects in a bit more jeopardy.
These trips to Wembley are often handy for struggling teams to reboot, but both sides are in that mind set already as the Eagles blew a 17-point lead against Carolina and the Jags lost their third in a row against Houston.
They’ve scored just 28 points in those three defeats and benched quarterback Blake Bortles last week – it’s fair to say Jacksonville have a lot to fix heading to Wembley.
Home comforts for Jaguars?
The Jaguars certainly need all the help they can get and their team are more familiar with the trip to London, where they’ve won the last three, and coach Doug Marrone will hope that adds to their advantage.
Under-fire quarterback Bortles will start at Wembley despite throwing eight interceptions this season, and committing eight turnovers during their three-game slide, and he won’t get an easy ride from the Eagles defence on Sunday.
He and the Jags need to get something going in the running game, hence why they shelled out a first round pick to bring Carlos Hyde over the from the Browns with Leonard Fournette injured – but running on this Eagles rush defence is no easy matter regardless of hat side of the Atlantic they’re playing on.
Eagles QB Carson Wentz has decent numbers on his return from a knee injury but he’s still not managed to recapture his form of last season – and he faltered badly with the game on the line against Carolina.
'Sacksonville' struggling
Strangely for Jacksonville, their famed defence hasn’t been performing and they’re a woeful -12 on turnover differential, while they’re mid-table on 18 sacks so they’ll be looking to make a statement – and what better time or place than against the Super Bowl champions at Wembley.
The Jags are also without a trio of their top cornerbacks as well through injury, although the best of them all, Jalen Ramsey, plays he’ll have three undrafted rookies alongside him – that’s a distinct advantage for Wentz and his Eagles.
Considering Philly are struggling with their run game since Jay Ajayi went down, the blueprint here is relatively simple - attack the Jags’ secondary, apart from Ramsey, and bottle up their run game forcing the onus onto the struggling Bortles.
All signs point to a defensive arm wrestle, given the struggling nature of the respective offences, and although it may not be a shootout it should be a fascinating battle.
Prediction: Eagles (-5) to beat Jaguars at 11/8
Touchdowns: Alshon Jeffery & Zach Ertz both to score touchdowns at 5/1
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