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Posted Friday at 2:30 PM EST.

1:00 PM EST. The NFL trade deadline has come and gone and the general consensus seems to be the Jaguars came out as one of the big winners after trading for star defensive lineman Marcell Dareus to bolster an already stout defense. While Dareus, a two-time Pro Bowler makes a fine addition to the Jags, the last time we checked he can’t throw a tight spiral. Quarterback play is still the Jags’ biggest weakness with Blake Bortles at the helm.  Bortles leads an offense that ranked 15th in total DVOA but that is largely because of their run game. Bortles is 19th in total QB DVOA, 20th in DYAR and 19th in QBR. Bortles rank ranges in line with Carson Palmer and Eli Manning, two veteran QBs that have been skewered for their poor performance this season. The Jags have not been able to string together two wins in a row this season and while the general consensus is they should be well rested after the bye, we see that break as nothing more than a momentum breaker after the Jags shut out the Colts in Week 7. Jacksonville’s stock is at an all-time high, which is funny to say about a 4-3 team but that just shows how inept this franchise has been over the years. Just like we suggested on Thursday that Buffalo is not ready to take on the role of the chalk, neither are the Jags.

The Bengals were very fortunate to escape last week with a 24-23 win over the Colts after taking an interception to the house late in the game for the go ahead score. Cincy was an 11-point favorite in that game. The Bengals stock has been up and down this year but mostly down after a horrific start to the season. Many observers have noticed Cincinnati has played a very similar schedule to the Jags who have wins over the Steelers, Texans and Ravens, all teams who have defeated the Bengals. We’ve also seen the Colts used as a “like” opponent and the Bengals had no business defeating them either. However, what we know for sure is that Cinci is better than its record or their performance on the field. As an 11-point fav last week, they neatly got caught being stupid and it’s not an unusual occurrence. 

There has been considerable hand-wringing and mockery over Cinci’s play this season and we wondered whether it being a big favorite would be a detriment or spur an excellent performance from them last week. Now we know it turned out to be the former, but this time last week we were most interested in testing the hypothesis that the Bengals might play with a chip on their shoulder after being told they don’t belong among the top-tier teams or even second tiered teams in this league. Channeling that outside noise into a lackluster performance rather than a something-to-prove attitude was a failure last week but if being a bigger dog against Jacksonville than they were against Pittsburgh doesn't inspire them this week, we’ll admit we’re wrong about this team being so much better than this market gives them credit for.

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