Tag: Bengals

Prime-time failures don’t bode well for the Jaguars’ immediate future

The Jaguars can’t afford to become a team that shrinks under the bright lights.

The Jacksonville Jaguars won their first three games in the national (and international) spotlight this season. But two prime-time losses in the last three weeks have cast doubt on their ability to perform when the lights are shining brightest.

At the beginning of the season, the Jaguars capitalized on big stages to get back on the right track.

Jacksonville played the Atlanta Falcons in London after dropping games to the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans that put them at 1-2 through the first three weeks. They beat the Falcons 23-7 to reach .500 and start their climb back to the top of the AFC.

Then the Jaguars beat the Buffalo Bills in London to reach 3-2, as they returned to Duval. While Jacksonville hadn’t played in an 8 p.m. slot, they got early-season experience being the featured game.

“It was just so much louder here — just for it to be a regular season game, just for it to be Week 5,” Jaguars running back Travis Etienne Jr. said after the win over Buffalo. “I feel like the intensity, the crowd, everyone was just going crazy.”

Not only did the Jaguars win those games, but they used them to ignite a win streak. Jacksonville won its next game against the Indianapolis Colts before playing the New Orleans Saints on Thursday Night Football in Week 7.

Another prime-time game, and another win. Jacksonville won a close, 31-24 game to achieve a 5-2 record. The Jaguars then won three of their next four and sat at 8-3 ahead of their next featured game — a Monday Night Football matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals without Joe Burrow.

Ahead of their first Monday night game since 2011, the Jaguars knew how significant the spotlight was.

“It’s really just approaching it the same, learning to control your emotions,” Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence said Nov. 27 — a week before the game. “I want the guys to feel relaxed, but at the same time, continue to have that edge that we’ve had the last couple of weeks. … Monday night is a special night. You’re the only game on, everybody is watching you and you want to put your best foot forward.”

Despite Burrow’s absence, Jacksonville lost in front of its home crowd to Jake Browning and the Bengals. While the loss to a backup quarterback looked bad at the moment, Browning’s ascension in the two games has made the result more understandable.

Jacksonville got another shot to earn a prime-time win for the home crowd last week against the Baltimore Ravens.

“It’s exciting for us, but it really honestly doesn’t change much,” Lawrence said a few days before the game. “We still have a job to do, and I look back at the Monday night game. We ended up losing the game and not much to show for playing on a prime-time game and you lose. That’s something where we’ve just got to focus on our job and taking care of business, no matter what time or what day the game is on.”

The Jaguars lost again. They fell to the Ravens in a disappointing 23-7 result. A team that initially thrived under the spotlight has since turned into a team that has come up short on the big stages.

Jacksonville isn’t slated to play any more prime-time games in the regular season, but they’re in the driver’s seat of a close race for a playoff spot.

If the Jaguars advance to the playoffs, their shortcomings in regular season prime-time games will need to be solved, or their postseason run will be a brief one.

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Steelers in No. 6 spot in AFC Playoff picture in Week 15

Here is our updated look at the AFC playoff rankings.

Believe it or not, despite the brutal two-game losing streak the Pittsburgh Steelers are on, they still find themselves as the No. 6 seed in the AFC Playoff picture. There are six teams including the Steelers currently at 7-6 and only two playoff spots up for grabs right now. Here is how the rankings break down.

Mickey Loomis’ bungled Trey Hendrickson decision is looking like one of Saints’ worst calls

Trey Hendrickson has more sacks than the entire Saints defensive line put together. Mickey Loomis’ bungled decision to let him go only looks worse with time:

Anyone who has been around the NFL as long as Mickey Loomis is going to have decisions they’re proud of and others they regret, but the New Orleans Saints general manager’s decision to let Trey Hendrickson walk away in free agency stands out as a massive blunder.

Hendrickson is closing in on his third consecutive Pro Bowl nod with the Cincinnati Bengals this season, having racked up 13.5 sacks. That’s more than the entire Saints defensive line put together: Carl Granderson (6.5), Nathan Shepherd (2.5), Cameron Jordan (2), Bryan Bresee (1.5), and Tanoh Kpassagnon (0.5) have combined for 13 sacks.

Loomis and the Saints rationalized that they could let Hendrickson leave in free agency and earmark the salary cap resources saved by letting him go for other players — namely star free safety Marcus Williams. But they were unable to agree to terms on a long-term deal and, after playing out the 2021 season on the franchise tag, Williams left in free agency a year later. On top of that, the Saints would have gotten a valuable compensatory draft pick for losing Williams (like they did for Hendrickson) but they wiped it out by signing quarterback Andy Dalton.

Of course the Williams-or-Hendrickson question was only part of the conversation. The Saints were steadfast in their belief that Marcus Davenport was going to step up in Hendrickson’s place, but his potential never materialized and he left in free agency a few years later without a fight. They drafted Payton Turner to replace Davenport and he hasn’t gotten it done, either.

So who is to blame? Does Loomis really deserve all of the criticism here? He’s the general manager and executive vice president of the team and ultimately all calls fall on him. But Sean Payton and Dennis Allen might have dirty hands here, too. Payton always had a lot of say in personnel decisions. Allen was influential on his side of the ball before being promoted to head coach, too. He would rather draft oversized defensive ends who can stop the run and call in a blitz when he needs to get pressure, so it’s easy to speculate that he was in the pay-Williams-instead camp.

Ultimately the Saints didn’t get anything they wanted out of this situation. They lost a talented player at one of the game’s most important positions as well as another young defender they drafted, developed, and prepared to play for another team. Now they have a defense that struggles to pressure quarterbacks, a series of NFL draft busts, and a fraught salary cap outlook without the benefits of stars in their prime like Hendrickson.

Payton isn’t in New Orleans any longer. Allen may not be long for the city, either, if he can’t get his squad into the playoffs with the easiest schedule and worst division in pro football for a second year in a row. That leaves Loomis as the last one to catch any heat for this whole debacle. It won’t cost him his job, but it’s an easy omen to look to when he’s being outperformed by his peers around the league.

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NFL Power Rankings Week 15: Bills back in top-5, Bucs, Browns and Bengals on the rise

Here’s how we place all 32 teams heading into Week 15.

The San Francisco 49ers are still No. 1 in our NFL power rankings. This week they demolished the Seattle Seahawks, beating them on the road by a score of 28-16. Since their three-game losing streak in the middle of the season, the Niners have been the league’s most-impressive team, winning their last five games by a total of 97 points.

However, the Dallas Cowboys look almost-as-imposing as they thrashed the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday Night Football. The victory kept Dallas at No. 2 in our rankings and dropped Philadelphia another spot. Somewhere along the way, Dak Prescott rightfully passed Brock Purdy for the best odds to win this year’s league MVP award.

As for the No. 3 spot, the Baltimore Ravens survived a thriller at home against the Los Angeles Rams thanks to a punt return touchdown in overtime. That was just enough to keep them at third place in our rankings. Meanwhile, the Rams pushing Baltimore to the limit actually boosted their ranking by two spots despite losing the game.

Rounding out the top four are the Buffalo Bills, who took down the reeling Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday afternoon. Patrick Mahomes’ uncharacteristic outburst at the end of the game is evidence of the team’s limitations on offense this season, a flaw that makes a repeat as Super Bowl champions look increasingly unlikely every week.

In the middle of our rankings, the Seahawks are now mired at No. 19, down one spot from last week. As bad as they look defensively in Santa Clara they are now in a range of teams that they’re definitively better than on paper. They just happen to be going through a rougher portion of their schedule. We have a feeling that these Seahawks are about to turn things around, beginning next week against the Eagles – in large part thanks to Philly also going through a slump on defense.

At the bottom of our rankings we have another shakeup, as Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots finally benched Mac Jones and were immediately rewarded with a huge boost from backup Bailey Zappe. On Thursday Night Football they upset the Pittsburgh Steelers, who dropped five spots from last week.

Another team that scored a huge win include Washington’s own Jake Browning and the Cincinnati Bengals, who won a critical playoff-positioning game against the Indianapolis Colts and Washington State’s Gardner Minshew. After a huge drop-off following Joe Burrow’s season-ending injury, Cincinnati is once again knocking on the door of the top 10. No other team has had more wild swings in our rankings this year.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers also made a huge jump in the playoff race, taking over first place in the NFC South from the Atlanta Falcons. As a result, they’re up seven spots from last week.

The biggest tumbles of Week 14 happened on Monday night, when the New York Giants upset the heavily-favored Green Bay Packers, who took a major dive down from No. 7 to No. 13 in our rankings. At the same time, the Miami Dolphins were also upset by the Tennessee Titans, but it only cost them one spot.

Here’s how we place all 32 teams heading into Week 15…

Christian Kirk’s absence is looming large for the Jaguars

Only 18 of the 43 passes thrown to Calvin Ridley and Zay Jones in the last two weeks have been caught. Three were interceptions.

Jacksonville Jaguars players and head coach Doug Pederson all said the same thing Sunday after a 31-27 loss to the Cleveland Browns: of course they miss Christian Kirk, but winning without him is a puzzle they better solve quick.

When Kirk went down on the first offensive play against the Cincinnati Bengals, the Jaguars didn’t just lose their leading receiver — the wide receiving corps also lost its leader and Lawrence lost his most trusted target. With Kirk now on injured reserve following surgery on his injured core muscle, those are holes that won’t be filled any time soon.

“There’s no excuses; nobody cares,” Lawrence said Sunday. “That’s the thing about this league. No one really cares who you are missing. There are a lot of teams who are missing players at this point in the season, but 100 percent [we] miss Christian. He’s one of our best players.

“He makes a huge impact on this offense and this team. Of course you miss him, but Christian is on IR, we have to find a way to still win games without him. That’s not going to change in the next few weeks.”

The absence has been glaring on the field. In the Jaguars’ back-to-back losses, Calvin Ridley has been targeted 21 times for only eight receptions. That included a pass from Lawrence that zipped past Ridley’s head for an interception Sunday when the receiver wasn’t looking for the ball.

Another 22 passes were thrown to Zay Jones, only 10 of which were caught. Against the Browns, Jones finished with just 29 receiving targets despite being targeted 14 times.

“You can’t really replace [Kirk], but it’s still the next man up mentality and we didn’t get it done today,” Jones said. “That includes myself, I didn’t play well enough today.”

Even the high ankle sprain suffered by Lawrence likely could’ve been avoided if Kirk was on the field. While rookie receiver Parker Washington has played well in the veteran’s absence, it was the sixth-round pick’s mistake that had Lawrence lunging out of position and under the foot of offensive tackle Walker Little.

“Obviously, we miss Christian,” Pederson said Sunday. “He was a big part of the offense. But where we are in the season, this late, it’s the next man up mentality, so we’ve got to continue as coaches to prepare our players and get those guys ready to go regardless of who’s in there.”

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AFC North roundup: Steelers fall to 3rd in division

The Steelers have lost two straight and are third in the AFC North.

All four AFC North teams have wrapped up Week 14 and the news isn’t great for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Once the dust settled, the Steelers continued to find themselves in third place in the division and losing ground with every embarrassing loss.

The Baltimore Ravens pulled off a thrilling overtime win over the Los Angeles Rams and lead the North with a 10-3 record. We honestly hope they win out and rest their starters in the season finale against the Steelers.

The Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals got big wins with backup quarterbacks on the field. Cleveland got over 300 passing yards and three touchdowns from Joe Flacco as they got past the Jacksonville Jaguars.

For the Bengals, they got a big game from quarterback Jake Browning to beat the Indianapolis Colts and stay tied in the win/loss column with Pittsburgh.

It is sobering to see the stark contrast in play style between the Steelers and the other three teams in the AFC North. The level of energy and confidence is obvious and it really doesn’t inspire confidence for the final four games of the season.

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Watch: ManningCast reacts to Trevor Lawrence’s injury

“I can’t watch that, it makes me sick.”

Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence is a big fan of Pro Football Hall of Famer Peyton Manning, and vice versa.

So Manning was pretty upset to see the Jaguars’ 24-year-old quarterback go down Monday night with what looked like a serious ankle injury. Both Peyton and Eli Manning were live on ESPN2’s ManningCast with guest Chad Johnson when the injury occurred.

 

Johnson, a former Cincinnati Bengals receiver, initially celebrated the sack before realizing that Lawrence was injured on the play. Manning knew something was wrong right away, though.

“Oh Trevor, no no no,” Manning said.

Later, the broadcast showed a hobbled Lawrence being helped down the tunnel.

“I can’t watch that, it makes me sick,” Manning said.

Fortunately for Lawrence and the Jaguars, the injury wasn’t as severe as it initially appeared. Head coach Doug Pederson said Tuesday that it’s a high ankle sprain and testing showed that “everything is stable, everything looks good.”

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Jaguars PFF grades: Best and worst performers vs. Bengals

Pro Football Focus gave some very surprising grades to the Jaguars’ defensive players.

Monday certainly didn’t go according to plan for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Against a double-digit underdog with an inexperienced backup quarterback in the starting lineup, the Jaguars were supposed to roll against the Cincinnati Bengals. Instead, a suddenly porous defense couldn’t get a stop and injuries piled up for key players, including quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

Prior to his ankle injury, Lawrence was putting together one of his best performances of the year. But it wasn’t enough to erase some uncharacteristically poor showings on the other side of the ball.

At Pro Football Focus, they graded every player in the Jaguars’ 34-31 loss to the Bengals. Here’s who stood out most, including some very surprising standouts on the Jaguars defense:

Anton Harrison on costly holding: ‘Got to put myself in better position’

Anton Harrison took responsibility for the penalty that nullified the play that could’ve won the game for the Jaguars.

It looked for a second like C.J. Beathard saved the day Monday night. Facing a third down in overtime around midfield, the Jacksonville Jaguars’ backup quarterback rolled to his right and heaved a ball downfield to Calvin Ridley who hauled in a 43-yard grab on the Cincinnati Bengals’ 2-yard line.

The crowd went wild … until they saw the yellow flag near the line of scrimmage. A holding penalty on rookie right tackle Anton Harrison nullified the play and led to a punt two plays later.

On ESPN2’s ManningCast, former NFL quarterback Eli Manning argued that the Bengals’ Sam Hubbard “flopped” to draw the flag, while ex-Bengals receiver Chad Johnson defended the call.

Harrison said his opinion of the penalty doesn’t matter, though.

“The refs are gonna do their job, I’m not gonna agree with everything,” Harrison said in the locker room after the Jaguars’ 34-31 loss. “I just got to try to put myself in a better position. That’s really it. I got to put myself in a better position to make that block.”

Harrison has done well to avoid penalties during his rookie season. The costly holding penalty was the fifth flag thrown on the first-round pick this season and the third for holding. Veterans Walker Little and Brandon Scherff have drawn six and five, respectively.

The right tackle that Harrison replaced, Jawann Taylor, has drawn a league-high 16 flags in his first season with the Kansas City Chiefs.

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Studs and duds in the Jaguars’ 34-31 overtime loss vs. Bengals

Who’s to blame for the Jaguars’ awful Monday night? And who stood out most, despite the final score?

It was a rough night for the Jacksonville Jaguars.

After 12 years away from Monday Night Football, the Jaguars’ big party in the national spotlight was instead defined by devastating injuries and one of the team’s worst defensive efforts in recent memory.

By the time the Cincinnati Bengals hit a field goal in overtime to win 34-31, the Jaguars had allowed 491 yards of total offense to a team that recently lost Joe Burrow for the year.

Even worse was an avalanche of injuries, which included an ankle issue for Trevor Lawrence that looked devastating. While the initial diagnosis of a sprain is relatively positive, it’d be shocking if the third-year quarterback didn’t miss time.

So who’s to blame for the awful night at EverBank Stadium? And who stood out most, despite the final score? Here are some studs and duds in the Week 13 loss: