The Jacksonville Jaguars had a chance to earn back-to-back wins for the first time in more than two years on Sunday. Although the team got off to a disastrous start, giving up a blocked punt returned for a touchdown and going down 17-0 in the first quarter, they fought their way back against the division rival Indianapolis Colts.
Jacksonville had the ball down six points with just over two minutes to play and a chance to stun the home crowd, but a fumble from quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who did not have his best game, ultimately proved to be the deciding moment.
The Colts survived 23-17, getting back to .500 on the season as the Jaguars fall to 2-7. The team will return home next week for a game against the San Francisco 49ers.
The Jags looked to have turned a corner after last week’s upset win over Buffalo, but Sunday’s game proved to be a reminder of how far this team still has to go. Here are takeaways and notes as the team falls to 0-3 in division matchups this season.
The offense continues to struggle
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: This team continues to put Lawrence in awful positions. Expecting success from a rookie quarterback when there’s approximately zero help around him is a fool’s errand, and Sunday’s game was another example of this.
Dropped passes were frequent, and the passer had to dig himself out of a three-score hole before he even had his bearings.
With that being said, Lawrence was far from perfect, and he had one of his sloppier games of the season. He completed just three of his first 12 passes, and he finished the game 16-of-35 for 162 yards. While he avoided tossing any interceptions, he also didn’t have any touchdowns and had the fumble on the final drive.
Luckily, even as Lawrence struggled, the run game looked much better with James Robinson back in the fold. He took his 12 carries for 59 yards and a touchdown, but he wasn’t the team’s leading rusher. That honor goes to Jamal Agnew, who only got three carries but took full advantage, rushing for 79 yards and a score, mostly thanks to a 66-yard touchdown.
The team’s 179 yards on the ground is the main reason it was able to come back, but the lack of success in the passing game ultimately proved to be too much to overcome. The Jaguars need to find some way to turn things around in that regard if there’s any hope of getting things right this season.
The defense may be onto something
The Jags found themselves down early, and the defense certainly didn’t play very well on the opening possessions. Running back Jonathan Taylor had 52 yards on the first possession alone, and while he crossed the century mark, he only had 64 yards on the ground the rest of the way.
The defense tightened up significantly after the early going, and it ultimately only allowed 16 points in this game.
Quarterback Carson Wentz, who has been very sharp this year, wasn’t particularly effective in this game. He completed just 22-of-34 passes for 180 yards, and he didn’t score any touchdowns.
It wasn’t quite the shutdown performance the team put forth last week, but facing one of the best backs in the NFL, the defense did enough to win. The same cannot be said for the performance of the offense, but considering how lost this defense looked in the first few weeks of the season, the Jags should be at least mildly pleased with the way it has developed.
Other notes
- Tight end Dan Arnold continues to look like a stellar pickup. He was once again Jacksonville’s leading receiver on Sunday, and he caught five of his seven targets for 67 yards. With James O’Shaughnessy still unavailable, he continues to make a statement. Considering the way that C.J. Henderson continues to struggle, that may have been a much better trade than we gave the Jaguars credit for at the time.
- The same cannot be said for the rest of the receiving corps, which continues to be abysmal. Marvin Jones Jr. caught just two of his six targets for 35 yards, while Laviska Shenault Jr. caught just three of eight targets for 15 yards. While Agnew was productive on the ground, he didn’t catch a single one of his five targets (to his credit, he had 101 yards on kick returns). It’s unfair to put the entirety of the blame on this group, but at some point, it needs to start doing Lawrence some favors.
- Cam Robinson was back at left tackle after missing the win over the Bills, but it wasn’t a great performance for the offensive line. Lawrence was sacked three times, and the pressure didn’t help what was an already difficult day for the passing offense.
- Josh Allen had a quieter game after his dominating performance last week, but he was still very solid. Despite only making two tackles, his pressure proved to make a difference as he got three hits on Wentz. Dawuane Smoot was more productive on the other side against the run, totaling five tackles.
- DaVon Hamilton had the team’s only sack in this game, and he continued what has been a very solid season for him. The interior of the defensive line has mostly been a committee this season, and with no one stepping up, that player could be Hamilton. Coach Urban Meyer has talked about the importance of getting pressure from the interior, and Hamilton did his job in that regard on Sunday.
- Shaquill Griffin drew another tough matchup after lining up on DK Metcalf and Stefon Diggs the last two weeks, this time from Indianapolis’ Michael Pittman Jr. Pittman found some success, going for 71 yards on five catches, but he was kept out of the end zone. While the secondary hasn’t been great this season, Griffin has been among the brightest spots in the group.
- Kicker Matthew Wright continues to be a bit of a mixed bag. While he shows signs of being the answer to the Jags’ kicking woes, like when he drilled a career-long 56-yarder. He missed a second kick from 51, but the more concerning aspect was the fact that he missed his lone extra-point try. Wright did enough to earn the job earlier in the season, but whether he’s the long-term answer remains to be seen.