Jaguars vs. Titans 2018 Prediction: Tennessee Will Beat Jacksonville, Remain In Playoff Race

Home teams have been dominant on “Thursday Night Football” in the 2018 NFL season. That could mean the Tennessee Titans are in for a big game when they host the Jacksonville Jaguars to kick off Week 14.

Tennessee is a five-point favorite over Jacksonville, according to the latest betting line at OddsShark. Home favorites are 9-0 both straight up and against the spread in the first primetime game of each week.

Aside from when they were shut out by the Baltimore Ravens when Marcus Mariota was sacked 11 times, the Titans have been terrific at home. Tennessee is 3-1 at Nissan Stadium with wins over the Philadelphia Eagles, Houston Texans and New England Patriots. The win over New England was a dominant one in which Tennessee routed the Patriots 34-10. They overcame an early 16-0 deficit last week to beat the New York Jets.

Jacksonville squeaked out a 20-15 win over the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium in the season opener. Since that game, the Jaguars have zero road wins with a 0-5 record away from Jacksonville. The Jaguars were defeated by the Buffalo Bills 24-21 in their last road game, scoring a meaningless touchdown with 80 seconds left to make the final result a close one.

The Jaguars are coming off a win against the Indianapolis Colts. They shut out their division rivals 6-0 in Week 13.

It’s highly unlikely that Jacksonville will allow no touchdowns for a second straight game, though it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Jaguars will fail to reach the end zone, once again, with Cody Kessler under center.

The Titans’ defense had a few bad performances recently when the team played Andrew Luck and Deshaun Watson on the road. The unit got back on track when it faced Josh McCown at home. That should continue against Kessler, who is 1-8 in his career as a starter.

Kessler threw for just 150 yards on 24 attempts last week. He threw for 156 yards on 30 attempts when he took over for Blake Bortles in the second half of a game against Houston a few weeks ago. That doesn’t bode well for his chances against the NFL’s No.5 pass defense and a unit that’s giving up 5.5 yards per play overall.

Opponents have scored 46 total points on offense in their last three visits to Tennessee. Jacksonville could be lucky to reach 17 points and make this a game late in the fourth quarter.

Prediction: Tennessee over Jacksonville, 24-16