Big Cat Country
As Week 5 approaches, we rounded up the latest NFL power rankings to get a sense of how the Jaguars are viewed nationally.
From Josh Kendall and Chad Graff:
As promised, the Jaguars have tried a little bit of everything with the second pick. [Travis Hunter] has played 250 snaps so far, according to TruMedia, 152 on offense, 95 on defense and three on special teams. On Sunday, he concentrated on offense, playing 38 snaps there against only nine on defense, and had three catches for 42 yards, including a career-long 28-yarder. He is the team’s second-leading receiver with 13 catches for 118 yards and has 11 tackles on defense.
There is room to grow for the Jaguars. Trevor Lawrence is not playing well. Brian Thomas Jr. has just 164 yards. They’re still figuring out how to use Travis Hunter. And still, Jacksonville is 3-1 after a nice win at San Francisco and the Jags are tied for first in the AFC South. A big home game vs. Kansas City awaits.
At 3-1, they are one of the surprise teams in the league, led by a defense with 13 takeaways. But here come the Chiefs on Monday night for a big one.
Winning ugly is still winning.
That was a gutsy, hard-fought road win over the 49ers, with the Jaguars’ defense amazingly turning in their fourth straight game with three or more turnovers forced. And they needed every single one of them, along with Parker Washington ’s punt-return TD, to pull off the 26-21 victory. That’s now 13 takeaways on the season, and several of them have come at critical times. The question is whether Jacksonville can maintain this absurd pace. The obvious answer is no, and the defensive injuries are starting to add up. The Jags can’t afford to lose Travon Walker (wrist) for an extended period of time and hope for the defense to be this impactful going forward. The offense has given the team some early juice, but Jacksonville’s likely to need even more from that unit.
With Sunday’s victory over the 49ers, they are 3-1 and tied with the Indianapolis Colts atop the AFC South. It’s only the second time Jacksonville started 3-1 since the 2008 campaign. Plenty of room for improvement still exists, too, specifically how the offense utilizes its weapons at wide receiver. As soon as Brian Thomas Jr. and Travis Hunter become more consistent, Trevor Lawrence and Co. can become truly dangerous.
Their 13 takeaways − including at least three in every game − are already four more than they had all of last season. The Jags are the sixth team...
