Jacksonville Jaguars are nine-point underdogs to New England Patriots in AFC Championship

Another week, another game for the Jacksonville Jaguars being listed as major underdogs.

This past week in the divisional round of the playoffs, the Jacksonville Jaguars took down the Pittsburgh Steelers 45-42, despite being a touchdown underdog to Pittsburgh.

Now, even after the road win and advancing to the AFC Championship, Jacksonville finds itself as an even bigger longshot to advance again.

The Jaguars travel to New England to take their shot at Tom Brady and the defending champion Patriots, for the right to represent the American Football Conference in the Super Bowl. The early odds for conference championship week are rolling out, and Jacksonville is a nine-point underdog to New England.

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If you thought the Jaguars were given no chance last week, this week doubters will be two-fold. It’s the Patriots at home in another AFC title game, so New England was going to be the favorites regardless of who the opponent was determined to be.

But the odds being set at -9 show that very little faith is being placed on the Jaguars to secure another improbable win on the road. It’s early in the week, and there will probably be some fluctuation with the line as we get closer to gameday. But there won’t be near enough of a shift to denote any significant confidence change in Jacksonville’s favor.

My thoughts

It’s Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. At home. In the playoffs.

Not surprising at all that the Jaguars will be heavy underdogs again on Sunday. The Patriots are playing in their seventh-straight AFC Championship, against a Jacksonville team that has already far exceeded expectations this season by even being in this position.

But as we mentioned leading up to the game versus the Steelers, the Jaguars are not concerned about whether or not the team is an underdog, or given any chances of winning the game. If this season has taught us anything, especially in the postseason, it’s that Jacksonville has done pretty well with an ‘Us against the world’ mentality. And this team is only gaining that much more confidence as the season keeps extending, win after win.

Don’t expect a nine-point spread to deter the Jaguars from taking their best shot at the kings of the NFL on Sunday afternoon.