The New York Jets are, according to scribe George R.R. Martin, an unending torment, but sportsbooks beg to differ. Now, this time last year we would have agreed that the Gang Green would be in for some serious medieval dungeon torture (such as being forced to watch Game of Thrones) against the Atlanta Falcons, but neither team, as it turns out, is in the same shape their were in the dying days of October 2016. Additionally, the Jets are a lot closer than the Wickerbottoms and the Rumpelstiltskins or however it is that Martin’s characters are called.
"We have to stick together and stay a family.
"That’s one thing that I can tell you this team is: a family."
? https://t.co/1io2MO43IC pic.twitter.com/zFKSV7F2qf
— New York Jets (@nyjets) October 24, 2017
- Date: Sunday, 29th October
- Time: 1:05 PM
- Venue: MetLife Stadium
- Online sportsbook odds:
Falcons -4 (-111) 46 (-105) -210
Jets +4 (-109) 46 (-115) +176
Who better than Ryan? McCown better than Ryan! Wait, what?
Jets QB Josh McCown has, believe it or not, more TD passes, a higher completion percentage and a better quarterback rating than his Atlanta counterpart Matty Ice, whom we should perhaps start calling ‘Melty Ice’. McCown is as far from league MVP as the Jets are from the Super Bowl, but the veteran has been good enough to keep his team competitive, and they have lost their last two games by a touchdown and field goal, respectively, and to none other than the Pats and Dolphins, at that. The Jets are, moreover, 4-0-1 ATS in their last five games, and have covered in all their three home games of the season. the Falcons, meanwhile, are 0-5 ATS in their last five games in October, 9-3 ATS in their last 12 on the road, and 2-5 ATS in their last 7 overall, though they have won and covered the sportsbook spread in their last five matchups with a team with a losing record.
The Falcons have got the shakes
Former Atlanta offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan caught a lot of heat for the Falcons’ Super Bowl collapse, of which they experience a flashback on Sunday, and perhaps those who pointed their fingers at the current Niners coach may have been partly right, in the sense that if Shanahan was to blame for the team’s shortcomings, he was also responsible for its achievements. In other words, Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, Mohamed Sanu, Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman are, to Steve Sarkisian, some sort of alien technology which he has not been able to reverse-engineer to make it work like Shanahan did. Oddest of all, ‘Cutty Sark’ seems to have NFC defenses (3-0, 29 points per game) figured out while at the same time begin way in over his head against the AFC (0-3, 13.7 points per game). The fact that the Jets, who upset the Falcons 30-28 in their last meeting in 2013, belong to the AFC East division does not bode well for Atlanta, as the Falcons could become the 90th team to go 0-4 against a division other than their own since 2002 – 87 of those teams did not make the postseason. The two teams have split their last four encounters, which have tended to be low-scoring games. The sportsbook total has gone under in five of the Falcons’ last seven games against the Jets.