Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
The Vikings should be aware of these three things
The Minnesota Vikings might be 4-1 so far on the season, but they haven’t made it easy on themselves.
Over the last three weeks, the Vikings have won by a combined 10 points leaving the opponent a chance to win or tie the game on the final possession. Nevertheless, they found a way to win all three which is the most important thing.
Not being able to step on the gas and put teams away has experts split on the Vikings long-term, leaving some cause for concern as they go into Miami this Sunday.
The road matchup with the 7-4 Rams will likely be one of Jacksonville’s toughest games of the whole season.
The Jacksonville Jaguars had a bit of momentum at one point this season. The team beat the Miami Dolphins in London to avoid an 0-6 start, then beat the Buffalo Bills weeks later with an impressive defensive showing despite a brief backslide after the buy.
But, partly due to mounting injury problems on a team that already wasn’t particularly talented in the first place, the Jags haven’t been able to capitalize on that momentum. They’ve lost their last three games, one of which wasn’t particularly close while the other two required large comebacks to even be competitive.
The road only gets more difficult for the 2-9 Jaguars as they hit the road this week to take on a Los Angeles Rams team that sits at 7-4 and is likely to earn at least a wild card spot in the NFC playoffs. Here are four causes for concern as the Jags prepare to take on one of the more talented teams in the league.
San Francisco is coming off a win over the Rams, and it has a lot of momentum heading into Sunday’s game.
Jacksonville had a chance to win on Sunday against Indianapolis despite trailing 17-0 at one point in the first quarter, but the team couldn’t complete the comeback as rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence fumbled the ball on the final drive. The loss dropped it to 2-7 on the season, and it returns home for a game that looked winnable before this past weekend. Now, not so much.
The San Francisco 49ers are just 4-5, but they’re coming off a dominating 31-10 win over one of the NFL’s best teams in the Los Angeles Rams. It has been a down year for the ‘Niners, but they still find themselves in the hunt in an NFC that isn’t very deep.
San Francisco has a lot to play for (and Jacksonville not so much), but the Jags will look to pull off another upset on Sunday against a team riding high with a lot of momentum. But it won’t be easy, and here are four reasons why the Jags could struggle in this one.
Here are four reasons Jacksonville could struggle against the Colts on Sunday.
The Jacksonville Jaguars are riding about as high as a 2-6 team possibly could be. On Sunday, they pulled off their first win in the United States in more than a calendar year and upset one of the league’s best teams, the Buffalo Bills, in the process.
It was a huge win for coach Urban Meyer and his young roster, and now the Jags enter a much more manageable stretch of games. That starts this weekend with a road matchup against the Indianapolis Colts, who are 4-5 but have been playing much better football as of late, winning three of their last four.
This is the first matchup between the two teams in 2021, and Jacksonville’s Week 1 win over Indianapolis last year was its only victory during the entire season. This is a winnable game this time around, but it certainly won’t come easy. Here are four reasons this game could prove to be a challenge.
Here are three obstacles the Jags are facing against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.
Coming off their first win of the 2021 season, the Jacksonville Jaguars will be back in action on Sunday when they travel to Seattle to take on a Seahawks team that sits at just 2-5 on the season after a loss to the New Orleans Saints in Monday Night Football.
Quarterback Russell Wilson has been placed on injured reserve, and in his place is Geno Smith, who hasn’t played very well and has a quarterback rating of 92.9 compared to Wilson’s 125.3.
The Seahawks are certainly vulnerable, and this is a good opportunity for the Jags to string together a second consecutive win. But playing in Seattle is never easy, and there are several reasons to be concerned heading into this one. Here are three of them.
Here are four reasons Jacksonville could struggle in Sunday’s game against the Cardinals.
The Jacksonville Jaguars have had about as rough a start to the season as fans could’ve imagined. While there was some hope the team would take a leap forward in 2021, it hasn’t shown it through two weeks of the season. Jacksonville is 0-2 with losses to a Houston team that was expected to be the league’s worst and a Denver team that, while talented in some areas, is far from an elite squad.
The road doesn’t get any easier this week, either. The Jags welcome the Arizona Cardinals and their second-ranked offense to town. The Cardinals are 2-0 (thanks to a missed game-winning kick from Minnesota as time expired last week), and they have one of the game’s best young quarterbacks and a very talented defense.
Flat out, this is a bad matchup for Jacksonville, and there are many reasons not to be optimistic about its chances in this one. But here are four of the biggest reasons.
The matchup with the Broncos presents several challenges for the Jaguars, who were dominated in Week 1.
Jacksonville’s season couldn’t have begun any worse. The team was thoroughly dominated by a Houston Texans squad that the Jaguars were favored to beat, and it seems that they’re once again heading toward one of the worst finishes in the league.
There’s still time to turn things around, and the play of quarterback Trevor Lawrence, while a bit erratic, showed some signs of stardom. It’s certainly not all bad news in Duval County, but the Jags have a tougher test than Houston this week for their home opener.
The 1-0 Denver Broncos come to town fresh off a 27-13 win against the New York Giants, and Jacksonville could easily be looking at an 0-2 start if it doesn’t play markedly better this time around. Here are some concerns about that game.
