Big Cat Country
I officially give up on trying to figure this team out. In a good way.
Last week, the Jacksonville Jaguars hit the ultimate rock bottom by giving up the franchise’s biggest blown lead to a bad division rival. How do they respond? By dogwalking the Los Angeles Chargers to the tune of a 35-6 blowout win, moving the Jags to 6-4 on the season.
The Jags are inconsistent, but Sunday showed just how good they can be when they play to their strengths. Both Liam Coen and Anthony Campanile looked like they heard my weekly gripes about how the team looks unprepared and prepared the ever-living hell out of the Jags for Sunday’s beatdown. Basically, from the first Jaguar drive, the Chargers had no answers.
There quite literally was no better way to respond from a devastating loss than thumping a team you were previously looking up at in the Wild Card standings. Victory Monday feels oh so good, especially when it comes to handing the Chargers another devastating loss at EverBank Stadium.
WINNERS
Liam Coen
For the first time all season, the Jaguars scored offensive touchdowns in all four quarters. Talk about a way to respond by a rookie head coach.
If you read this series weekly, I have bemoaned the lack of preparation and the overall dysfunction of the Jags in the first year under Coen. On Sunday, the team was as prepared as ever.
The Jags committed just one penalty all day, resulting in just five yards for the Chargers. For a team that averages about 8.5 penalties per game, this was such a refreshing outing by both sides of the ball, especially considering there were backups playing all over the field.
Outside of the one bad pick by Trevor Lawrence and whatever that drive after the pick was, Coen called a masterful game and took advantage of the team’s strengths. Jacksonville can deploy a stable of running backs and did so against the Chargers, running the ball to the tune of a noisy 192 yards. Even Lawrence got in on the running action, notching a rushing score which put him third in the NFL in total quarterback rushing touchdowns.
Sunday’s game was the first such game since 2009, and the eighth in team history, where the Jags had four rushing scores. Coen saw his matchup and took advantage. With how well the Jags ran the ball and played offense overall, it should be noted that the team didn’t punt a single time.
I’ve said the Jags have bottomed out multiple times this season. Maybe it took really, truly bottoming out last week to get back to the basics and reinvigorate this team and its coaches.
Coen had maybe his best game as a head coach on Sunday. Good for him.
Anthony Campanile
Another coach who rose to the challenge mightily was first-year defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile.
This defense sucked in recent weeks. The turnovers weren’t coming and the sacks were coming even less. That all changed...
