The Jacksonville Jaguars came out flat in a winnable game Sunday, surrendering 17 second half points to the Denver Broncos, falling 20-13 on the road for the team’s first loss.
It doesn’t take this column to tell you this game was a dud. That was a winnable game in all versions of the phrase, but the Jags collapsed in the second half, specifically in the fourth quarter. Jacksonville wasn’t playing the Browns again and it showed. And that’s frustrating.
Liam Coen’s team left much to be desired on the
field in Denver, which will cause quite the week of discourse on what this team truly is. It’s only Week 2, so there’s plenty of football ahead for Jacksonville but that game leaves a bitter taste in the mouth for anyone who watched or played in it.
No one particularly shined which might be the most damning aspect of that debacle. The season is far from over, but nonetheless that was a brutal watch for a team that had the game in control until it just flat out fell apart at the seams.
WINNERS
Perspective
Let’s take a broader look at the loss because it was far and away the most respectable loss of the Sunday slate. We didn’t lose to the Cleveland Browns like Tampa Bay did. We didn’t lose our starting quarterback like Washington did. We didn’t bench our starter like Pittsburgh did. We lost to a good team by a touchdown on the road. It happens.
By no means should the Jags hang a banner for “Hey, we didn’t lose that badly!” but it at least wasn’t like the team got killed. They just came out flat on the road.
It actually might be a good thing that there’s a collective frustration with that game because for the first time in a while there’s real expectation with the Jaguars. Many people were talking about how this team could be a playoff favorite after last week. It isn’t like that’s gone away after one game.
It can always be a lot worse. One game doesn’t automatically disqualify us from ever winning again. There’s concern, certainly. But the sky isn’t falling.
Parker Washington
Quietly, Parker Washington was probably the best offensive – or maybe best overall – player on Sunday. Washington hauled in seven catches for 98 yards on 12 targets which is respectable enough. His yardage was over half of the team’s total through the air.
Dating back to last year, Washington has excelled against a typically solid Broncos secondary for almost 250 yards and 13 catches plus one score combined. He can’t help Trevor Lawrence’s hapless ball thrown his way for that one interception, too.
If you have to find some sort of solace, you can find it in the trust Lawrence and the offense have in Washington. The Jags might want to pay this man before it becomes far too late. He has 181 yards, 12 catches and one score through two games this year.
LOSERS
Buster Brown
This Losers section isn’t so much an indictment on Buster Brown as it is on the discourse surrounding Jaylen Waddle after last week. Because of one game, did everyone forget Waddle is a top flight receiver? He reminded the world of that, largely picking on Brown for his 138-yard afternoon.
Brown, like most of the secondary, got cooked for large swaths of the game. Bo Nix and the Denver offense were able to get the medium-to-long passing game going in ways against the Jags that they were unable to against the Chiefs. Travis Hunter, Brown and even Jarrian Jones despite his pick all got bullied at points on Sunday.
It was an ugly day on defense and the secondary was far from the only reason for it. But Brown specifically was the guy getting picked on by Nix and Waddle. To Brown’s credit, he has stepped in big ways in big moments. He didn’t in his most recent game.
Brian Thomas Jr.
Ok, what the hell is wrong with this guy?
Brian Thomas Jr. was back at it again dropping passes and it’s truly inexplicable why. He hauled in just three of his eight targets, dropping some balls that hit him square in the palms. An incompletion to Thomas Jr. led to Cam Little’s missed field goal and that was just about the end of the game for Jacksonville. This is a well documented problem dating back to last year that might just end the former rookie phenom’s time in Duval County before it ever really gets off the ground.
It’s baffling. There could be an argument that the lack of catching ability from Thomas Jr. led directly to the Jags losing. That’s not going to fly for much longer.
Emmanuel Pregnon
Welcome to the NFL rook.
Last week, it was all rosy for the third-round rookie. This week not so much, as Denver’s defensive line and specifically Zach Allen took Pregnon to church for 60 minutes.
No one on the offensive line played well, but much like Brown’s performance in the secondary or Thomas as a receiver, the glaring issue all game was with the left guard.
This is an understandable issue as this was only Pregnon’s second game. It’s going to happen to a rookie. Again, it’s not like the Broncos are akin to the Browns. However, it wasn’t a Baldy Breakdown level showing from Pregnon who is going to face an equally tough defense in New England’s next week.
The Defensive Line
Two games in the past two years against Denver have resulted in one sack. As I said in our staff roundtable this week, it was going to be on the defensive line to cause havoc on the Broncos or Nix would be able to pick the team apart. With zero sacks Sunday, we saw what happened. As a result of those zero sacks, it was safety Antonio Johnson who led Jacksonville in pressures Sunday with two (!!!). This joins the laundry list of things that are downright unacceptable from this defense.
When Nix is pressured, like he was against the Chiefs, he’s as volatile as the Chernobyl reactor when left unattended. When you don’t pressure him, he goes for almost 300 yards. It’s basically that simple.
Dennis Gardeck played fine enough, but if that’s the guy you are highlighting on a defensive line that has the former number one overall pick and your franchise sack leader, it probably wasn’t a good day. Lo and behold, this was not a good day for the pass rush. The run defense was pretty good all around, but the pass rush game suffered greatly.
To add insult to injury, defensive tackle DaVon Hamilton left the game with a weird back injury and we all know how touch and go that is with him.
Defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile took an L this weekend plain and simple. Yet through it all, we lost by just one score.
Well that sucked. Let us know your thoughts on the game down below and we will see you back here when the Jags face the former Super Bowl runner-ups next Sunday. Maybe by then someone will have tackled Waddle in the open field.
