Big Cat Country
The Jacksonville Jaguars have won yet another rollercoaster, chaos-filled football game with the team’s 27-24 overtime win over the Arizona Cardinals.
It’s getting hard to describe this Jaguars team as they couldn’t be more up and down. While they may be heart attack inducing every weekend, they are still gutting out one-score games. So far this year the Jags have won five games decided by a single score. That is one of the big signs of a solid team, especially when it comes to getting late in the season and in the playoffs.
Despite how frustrating this team may be to watch, the Jags are still 7-4 and firmly in the playoff hunt within the AFC. Had one flag gone Jacksonville’s way at Cincinnati and had the team not completely collapsed against the Texans, they’d be 9-2.
The defense stepped up Sunday on the west coast as the offense sputtered. Next week it could be the opposite. So buckle up, keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times and be ready for anything.
WINNERS
Defense
The Jags had six sacks today. They had two last week. They had eight total sacks in the previous seven games combined.
There’s been a lot of talk this season, and in this weekly segment, about the lack of sacks from the Jags. Travon Walker being hurt has not helped, but there still is plenty of talent to go around. The team captured that holistically Sunday after a strong outing last week. In terms of sacks, Dennis Gardeck and Devin Lloyd each had 1.5. Josh Hines-Allen, DaVon Hamilton and Antonio Johnson each added a solo sack of their own.
The best part about that list is the guys actually getting those sacks.
In a revenge outing against the Cardinals, Gardeck was all over the place. He hadn’t had a sack all year but came alive against his former team. Lloyd was back to banging heads from the linebacker position. Don’t look now but JHA has sacks in consecutive games for the first time this season. Even a guy like Johnson got in the backfield after a strong game last week.
It was a whole defensive effort and a true back to form performance by the defense overall.
Trevor Lawrence threw three picks and the defense gave up just one touchdown off of those turnovers. Lawrence’s fumble was returned for a score so this defensive unit should only be on the hook for 17 total points. That’s 23 combined points in the last two weeks. That’s a winning strategy.
Injuries have not helped this unit – see Christian Braswell having to play a ton and biting on the double move in the fourth – but the defense responds. This group bottomed out against the Texans three weeks ago but have responded in a humongous way in the past two weeks.
Foye Oluokun
Getting his own special defensive shoutout is Foye Oluokun, who surpassed 1,000 career tackles in the win. He was tied with...
