I truly don’t know of a much better way to start a season than what the Jaguars did on Sunday.
Against the god-awful Cleveland Browns, the Jacksonville Jaguars did far more than handle business in their 34-10 season-opener win. It’s now 2-0 in season openers in Duval County for Liam Coen and the vibes couldn’t be higher.
When you have a win where arguably the worst play for your team is allowing a long kickoff return that didn’t go for a touchdown, resulting in just three points, you probably played
pretty well. That’s how it seemed on Sunday.
No real losers this week as the Jaguars ride high as the only AFC South team to win their opener, starting the season 1-0.
WINNERS
The Jaguars
Everyone’s a winner collectively from yesterday’s game. Sometimes you just need to handle business, not play with your food and win a game outright. The Jags did that in all three phases.
The offense scored on its first four drives, not having to punt until the final drive of the first half. The defense grabbed a pick on Cleveland’s first drive and forced about two dozen more fumbles throughout the game to go along with five sacks. Special teams did its job with a pair of long field goals from Cam Little and got some nice returns from Ameer Abdullah and Parker Washington. Handle business and move on.
The decreased stadium capacity was a little strange and the heat definitely impacted the crowd, but the Jags fans showed up like they always do to see the team off right to start the season. We can’t play the Browns every week but it’s a start. On to Denver.
Trevor Lawrence
Coen was asked postgame about the importance of starting Trevor Lawrence fast this season in the second season of this offense. The head coach said he and his staff were more intentional about working earlier in the week on the script. It paid off big time.
Had it not been for some mammoth games by Caleb Williams (the Chicago variant) or Tyler Shough, Lawrence might have had the best quarterbacking day in the league on Sunday.
Lawrence went a solid 18-23 for 245 yards and four touchdowns. He was sacked just once and was turnover free. The offense moved at will with Lawrence slinging it. It was smooth, his throws were layered beautifully and it just looked all around clean. Juxtaposed to whatever the hell Deshaun Watson was doing, it made Lawrence look even that much better.
The quarterback has a clear trust in every offensive weapon he has, with nine different guys catching at least one pass. The most catches on that list though did belong to…
Parker Washington
Hey look, Parker Washington is actually good and it wasn’t just a one season thing. Maybe they should have paid him.
In all seriousness, Washington was perhaps the best non-Lawrence player on the field yesterday with five catches for 83 yards and his leaping opening drive touchdown. He looks like a legit WR1 after just a game. Maybe the best part about Washington is that his newfound superstardom finds guys like Jakobi Meyers (two catches, 40 yards, one score) and Brian Thomas Jr. (three catches, 40 yards) that much more open. It all works in tandem. Sunday was a testament to that.
Chop Wood. Carry Water. Catch touchdowns.
Rookies
Another guy who benefitted from the Washington hype train was rookie wide receiver Josh Cameron, who caught a touchdown in his first NFL game.
Cameron looks the part through one game: a two catch, 20 yard and a score performance. His big frame is clearly something Jacksonville wants to take advantage of early and often.
Nate Boerkircher hauled in a pass as well, highlighting another rookie who flashed in spurts Sunday. Brenton Strange led the tight end room in “moments” so to speak, but the rookie Boerkircher did his job. As did rookie guard Emmanuel Pregnon, who got the start up front. At least offensively, the early returns look just fine for the rooks.
Defense
It probably doesn’t need to be stated just how horrific the Browns are, but the Jags defense had a lot to do with that.
Travon Walker AND Josh Hines-Allen each walked away with 1.5 sacks. Foye Oluokun had a pick that resulted in a touchdown drive. Ventrell Miller looked like prime Brian Urlacher, leading the team with 10 tackles, two tackles for loss and a sack. Travis Hunter played both sides and played well.
Those are your cornerstone guys who made the big plays all day long. You cannot ask for anything more.
There is something to be said that Anthony Campanile stayed in Jacksonville and got another season with what was a good defense last year. All three levels of the defense played well all day long and coach Camp should be getting a lot of praise for that fact.
Obligatory Cam Little Mention
Little was solid again Sunday, connecting on his two kicks of 47 yards and 40 yards. I would’ve loved to see him actually make a tackle on that long kick return but oh well. Ross Matiscik laid the boom in his place later anyway.
Ameer Abdullah
I would’ve guessed that if I was mentioning Abdullah in any capacity after a Jags game, it would be because everyone else played so badly and I was grasping at straws. But not so fast.
The Jags RB3-ish actually looked really good in his limited time. He had four carries for 32 yards and amassed 59 total kick return yards. He’s a veteran player and for what the Jags seemingly are going to use him for, he should be great. Credit to him.
LOSERS
Deshaun Watson
This dude flat out sucks, holy mother of Mary. The demons that follow Watson around and speak ancient phrases into his ears were working overtime Sunday. That first interception he threw was perfect timing for the defense. See ya next week.
Who do you think was the big winner from the Jags Week 1 win? Want to talk more on how well Lawrence played? Comment down below and we will see you right back here for the team’s Week 2 matchup next Sunday at the Denver Broncos.
