Jake Browning has played in 13 career NFL games. In two of them, he has beaten the ever-living shit out of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Jags (1-1) soiled themselves almost countless times Sunday, dropping a despicable game to the Cincinnati Bengals 31-27 in what was an Urban Meyer-level football game from hell.
Trevor Lawrence played poorly, Brian Thomas Jr. played worse and the team as a whole looked like they hadn’t practiced together one time this season. For as many good things as the Jags did
— like three interceptions and the emergence of Bhayshul Tuten — there were twice as many puke-inducing moments that killed any sort of chance Jacksonville had to win.
This was in no way, shape or form a proof of concept game for anyone from Duval County. There have been plenty of rock bottom moments in recent memory but they normally happen a few weeks into the season. Seeing an implosion like this just two weeks in leaves more than a fair share of uneasiness heading into a rivalry game next weekend.
WINNERS
Bhayshul Tuten
Ok, so maybe the Jags had something cooking when they traded away Tank Bigsby. With Tuten entering Sunday as the team’s RB2, he did everything in his power to get the Jags a win.
The rookie rushed the ball eight times for an effective 42 yards and caught two passes for 32, including his first career touchdown.
The running back room has been great in back-to-back weeks. Travis Etienne played well again, Tuten was a star and even LeQuint Allen had some timely blocks and runs. These guys didn’t cost the Jags the game on Sunday.
Foye Oluokun
Akin to a guy like Cam Little, Foye Oluokun might get a reserved spot on the winners list for a while. Since coming to Jacksonville, Oluokun has done nothing but play well and he did so again against the Bengals.
Oluokun had seven total tackles, two TFLs and a sack. His sack was one of the team’s three on the day.
He and Devin Lloyd both played sound defense (Lloyd snagging what should have been the game-sealing pick) but Oluokun always found himself around the ball. He’s a captain for a reason and looked the part on defense. I don’t think anyone can convince me he hurt the team in Cincinnati.
Offensive Line Play
For a second straight week, the Jags offensive line looked competent. Through two weeks, the Jags have given up just one sack and have rushed the ball for over 100 yards in both games. That one sack came on the second-to-last play of regulation Sunday and was from one of the game’s best pass rushers in Trey Hendrickson. Hard to complain about that if you are a Jags fan.
Lawrence had clean pockets for most of the afternoon while the backs had lanes to run for five yards a pop almost all day. Neither Cincy nor Carolina has next-level defenses, but this defense was surely an upgrade from the one this line faced last week yet they looked up to the challenge all afternoon. Offensive lines rarely get credit, but the Jags have something here if they can figure out how to actually play offense moving forward.
On the pitch-around final play, Ezra Cleveland did potentially get hurt. Like with Anton Harrison’s late-game injury last week this will be a big one to watch moving forward.
Parker Washington, Only When He Is On Offense
When the Jags were able to throw the ball correctly, a lot of those balls went the way of Parker Washington much to the surprise of everyone watching Sunday’s game.
Washington led Jacksonville in receiving with 81 yards, hauling in all six of his targets. He had a monster game overall, assuming the role of what many thought was going to be Travis Hunter’s.
Now, the Jags are missing Bigsby a bit in the return game because Washington is trying to do way too much back there, but that’s an experience thing I’d imagine. As a receiver, it looks like Washington is a veteran with the way he was hauling in balls and breaking tackles. He looked like the only Jags wide receiver who even wanted to be on the field for most of the game.
Travon Walker
The Bengals don’t have a good offensive line. Everyone in football knows this. Someone who really knows this now is Travon Walker.
Walker was a stud pass rusher Sunday, collecting a sack and three QB hits which tied a career-high. Both he and Josh Hines-Allen got a trio of quarterback hits and it felt like those two were in the backfield almost every play. Walker even started his day with the almost fumble forced against Joe Burrow.
This was by no means Walker’s best game, far from it. However, the former No. 1 overall pick did play well enough to give his offense a chance. They were the ones who squandered it, not Walker.
Cam Little
Usual Cam Little glazing goes as such: 2/2 on field goals, 3/3 on extra points. Make your kicks, get off the field. It would have been nice if the Jags didn’t give the Bengals a chance to return every kick to the 40, but there is only so much blame to place on Little with how the new rules work.
Al’s Pizza
That’s now back-to-back weeks of half-off pizza because the Jags defense is playing pretty well. Anyone cool with moral victories?
LOSERS
Trevor Lawrence
Well, what can you say to the Lawrence haters after that game?
You can forgive a couple bad passes. You can forgive some of the illegal shift penalties given the new offense because that’s not all on the quarterback. You can even forgive a rushed pick in the end zone if you have Hendrickson in your face. But all three? Multiple times over? Unforgivable.
Lawrence wasn’t the sole reason the Jags lost. His wide receivers did plenty to fail him. But the Jags could have prevented this whole thing had they played a game just a modicum cleaner. When your defense has three takeaways, it’s hard to blame them, so the blame gets thrown the other way. In this case, it’s largely going to fall on Lawrence’s head, fair or not.
If Lawrence hangs in the pocket on his first pick and takes that sack instead of throwing, the Jags get three points instead of zero. If Lawrence puts the ball in Dyami Brown’s gut instead of sailing it late in the fourth, the Jags win. I could even see an argument as to not throwing the ball to Thomas Jr. on the play that resulted in the second pick though Thomas Jr. was settling in the zone pocket. Both Thomas Jr. and Brown did plenty to fail Lawrence at different times, but there were plays to be made that weren’t.
All of those things shouldn’t have to be said about Lawrence, though. How much longer can the goal post be moved? How long until “well, this is a new coaching staff he is learning” wares off AGAIN? The dude threw a ball four yards past the line of scrimmage, fishing for a penalty after his team had already committed a pre-snap infraction. It’s stuff like that which doesn’t make sense for someone like Lawrence.
Everyone saw Coen yell at Lawrence to hit his receivers in the chest. It’s probably nothing. We will have to see over the next few days how the head coach and quarterback respond to that, as the national media will certainly take hold of this interaction. I feel like we have been here before, though.
Brian Thomas Jr.
While Lawrence displayed a few of the same bad tendencies he has had throughout his career, Thomas Jr.’s problems were a new sight. A scary one.
At every turn, Thomas Jr. ducked being hit and shied away from making the extra effort players like Washington were making. Maybe all game he was reliving getting blown up in the preseason against the Steelers, but come on man. The brand of football Thomas Jr. was playing was similar to the Tyler Lockett style, where avoiding hits extends your career. But it wasn’t even just that.
Lawrence hit his WR1 in the gut on fourth and five on the Cincy seven. It was a five-yard gain at least. Game over. Until Thomas Jr. just flat-out dropped it. Both he and Brown had dropping problems all day as if phantom defenders were swiping their hands away at easy catches, including touchdowns. Eight of Lawrence’s incompletions on the day were in the direction of BTJ, who finished with four catches for 49 yards. You get half of those incompletions back and the Jags roll this Bengals team.
Penalties and poor quarterback play are one thing. If the Jags can’t rely on their top receiver to simply catch the ball anymore, then those trips to Cabo better start getting booked now.
Penalties
Somehow in the end the Bengals only accepted six Jags penalties for 55 yards. Anyone actually watching the game saw probably 60 that Jacksonville committed.
The Hunter PI was just one of the wealth of Jags penalties committed Sunday. Who knew a team could make so many illegal shift calls? In what was the perfect ribbon on an awful day, the Jags got an illegal shift on their final play.
Penalties like multiple illegal shifts are a failure on the coaches and the quarterback. With how many penalties and how many miscues there were, it’s truly shocking the Jags were in this game as long as they were. This version of the Jags might not have even beaten Carolina.
Liam Coen
The head coach is going to have to wear this one. Let’s see how he does.
Coen took his first loss as a head coach and it was as inexcusable as any. This team didn’t look coached well and forced itself into way too many weird positions that could have been negated.
Why did the Jags not run the ball more in the fourth quarter? You are limping around in this game and puking all over yourselves when you pass. Why not give the ball to Tuten and Etienne and limit potential Bengals’ possessions? Why not run the ball four straight times following Browning’s third pick with six minutes to play on the 12-yard line? Why the hell is this team so unprepared to motion anyone on offense?
These are just some of the questions Coen will have to answer in the coming days. A lot will be attributed to the new coaching staff and new language that comes with it. But there is a disconnect that got swept up last week in the win. This team is not disciplined enough, especially on offense, and the coach might have bubbling issues with the franchise quarterback.
The Jags have “Built for this.” as their bio on Twitter. Sunday showed that that is a lie.
Travis Hunter
It was bound to happen sooner or later, but Hunter got beat up a bit on Sunday.
He played ok on offense with three catches for 22 yards. It was on defense where he was thrust into the action and was exposed by Browning of all people.
On the Bengals’ final drive, he was the defensive back the offense wanted to pick on. The first such instance resulted in a questionable pass interference penalty that will be the subject of criticism all week. An easy way to prevent this is to play football correctly the other 58 minutes of the game, but I digress. Hunter had played fine up until that point, but it does say something that the Bengals in a do-or-die situation wanted to target Hunter over Tee Higgins or Ja’Marr Chase (Chase had 14 catches, 165 yards, one TD).
The second instance was Browning and Chase catching Hunter flatfooted for a 16-yard gain just two plays later. All signs pointed to the Bengals wanting Hunter as the matchup again and they won again.
Coen said he was going to play Hunter more overall, which happened maybe a bit hurriedly with Jarrian Jones getting hurt. You draft Hunter to play him. He just didn’t play exceptionally well. He however is by no means the biggest loser on this list. There are going to be growing pains with the Hunter experiment. This is one of those growing pains games.
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