Big Cat Country
Happy Victory Monday to all who celebrate.
The Jacksonville Jaguars went out west again Sunday and again came out victorious with some late-game heroics, this time to the tune of a 30-29 overtime victory over the lowly Las Vegas Raiders.
Coming out of the bye, you would have expected the Jags to play a bit cleaner and have taken it to the two-win Raiders much more. That is just not what happened.
Geno Smith and Brock Bowers went off on the Jags defense while the offense had to scratch and claw its way into some leads. All that said, the Jags are 5-3 and back squarely in the playoff hunt.
If you don’t feel awesome about this win, I cannot blame you. If you are excited the Jags won a close game, or even won a game at all, I cannot blame you there either.
Someone quite famous in football once said, “Just win, baby.” That is exactly what the Jags did in Vegas.
WINNERS
Travis Etienne Jr.
With the wealth of injuries the Jags have across their skill positions, someone had to step up on offense. That guy was Travis Etienne.
Etienne had a great day with 84 yards rushing and 31 yards receiving. While he didn’t score (he came so close so many times), his output was one of the main reasons this team was able to score its most points in three games. Etienne rushed for the most he had since the 49ers win and had his season-high in receiving Sunday. According to ESPN Next Gen Stats, Etienne also forced a season-high nine missed tackles.
A special shoutout in this section should also go to the patchwork offensive line, which allowed just one sack and looked to be getting back to the form they had at the start of the year.
Due to injuries, it really might not be so far-fetched to say that Etienne is the team’s number one option moving forward.
Trevor Lawrence
It was another up-and-down day in the office for Trevor Lawrence, but the dude gutted out a win under bad circumstances. Neither of his top wide receivers was playing, his top tight end wasn’t playing, and he had to make it work with his legs a handful of times, but he did just that: make it work.
Throwing the ball 34 times for 220 yards and a pick isn’t going to jump off the page for any fan. Coupled with two rushing scores and the win, however, and it isn’t so bad.
It was Lawrence’s flu game, as head coach Liam Coen confirmed the franchise signal caller was up all night puking before the game. During that flu game, all Lawrence did was set the new franchise record for rushing scores with 18. He didn’t play great, but he did enough to win. That counts for something.
Cam Little
Hey look, Cam Little is back!
After an abysmal past couple of weeks – where I even speculated his career in Jacksonville might...
