Big Cat Country
The Jacksonville Jaguars kicked off 2025, their inaugural season under head coach Liam Coen, with a dominant 26-10 victory over the Carolina Panthers. The Jaguars’ defense collected 33% of their 2024 turnovers while the Jacksonville offense produced its best individual performance by a running back since 2022. Here’s everything you need to know from Jacksonville’s Week 1 2025 EverBank win over the Panthers.
Live blog:
Catch up on all the big plays and best moments from tonight’s game in our live blog!
Pregame:
The following Panthers players did not play in this one: WR Dalevon Campbell, TE James Mitchell, DT Cam Jackson, and WR Jimmy Horn. Horn is an interesting inactive after the team recently traded away Adam Thielen and placed Jalen Corker on injured reserve. That Carolina decided to play third-year undrafted free agent WR Brycen Tremayne over the rookie sixth-round pick was a slight surprise to most. Most notablbly, Panthers starting left tackle Ikem Ekwonu was made inactive after undergoing an emergency appendectomy late last week. He was unable to practice all week.
For Jacksonville, second-year defensive tackle Maason Smith, a 2024 second-round pick, was surprisingly made inactive in this one in what seems to be a healthy scratch. Smith missed much of training camp with an undisclosed training injury and first participated in the third preseason matchup. It’s possible that the team is allowing him time to ramp up his conditioning after missing much of the 2025 offseason. Additionally, the team was without CB Montaric Brown, OL Wyatt Milum, OL Cole Van Lanen, DL Danny Striggow, and DL B.J. Green III for today’s matchup.
1st Quarter
Jacksonville started with the ball, converting an early mid-field fourth and 1 via a 4-yard Dyami Brown rush. After a first-down Robert Hainsey holding penalty, Strange secured his second catch on the drive, this one for a first down. However, the team was unable to convert this drive into a touchdown after a first down, 12-yard intentional grounding penalty. The Cam Little 35-yard field goal kicked off the scoring to wrap up the 13-play, 55-yard, 6:45 drive. In total, the Jacksonville offense racked up three penalties for 32 yards on the first series, to add a Brian Thomas Jr drop on a jailbreak screen. (Jaguars 3, Panthers 0)
The Carolina offense opened their drive with multiple strong rushes, getting moderate movement up front against the Jacksonville interior. After an underthrown Bryce Young pass attempt was broken up by Jourdan Lewis, the 13-play, 41-yard, 7:39 drive was capped by a Panthers’ 48-yard field goal. Lewis initially was beaten by Hunter Renrow on the route, but didn’t give up, breaking up the pass at the last moment. Interestingly, the Jacksonville defensive line consistently rotated throughout the opening drive, with one snap on the drive occurring with Josh Hines-Allen, Travon Walker, and Arik Armstead all off the field. (Jaguars 3, Panthers 3)
2nd Quarter
The Jacksonville offense, however, went three-and-out on the following drive after a short Travis Etienne rush, an Etienne screen, and...
