Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Seattle Seahawks: Pro Football Focus Recap

The Jacksonville Jaguars have been abused by opponents through three weeks of the regular season and the advanced metrics have been just as merciless.

The hard working folks over at Pro Football Focus haven’t delved out too many positive grades for Jaguar players and that trend continued against the Seahawks. Giving up 31 unanswered points to start the game generally tends to hurt your statistical production.

Still we were able to find a few positive notes sprinkled in between the overall underwhelming advanced metrics from the Jaguars’ week 3 game.

Best Overall Offensive Grades:  Uche Nwaneri (+1.0), Cecil Shorts III(+0.8), Brad Meester (+1.5)

Uche Nwaneri found himself atop the offensive grades for the second straight week despite the poor offensive line play around him. Uche’s solid pass blocking (only 1 QB hurry) helped solidify his rating. Cecil Shorts got a lot of his yards when the game was already out of reach, but his stat line (143 yards on 8 receptions) is still something to be happy about. I thought Brad Meester played a lot worse than his grade (he gave up a sack), but I might have been projecting Will Rackley’s horrific performance onto him.

Sep 22, 2013; Seattle, WA, USA; Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson (3) carries the ball while being chased by Jacksonville Jaguars defensive tackle Sen

Best Overall Defensive Grades:  Andre Branch (+1.9), Brandon Deaderick (+0.7), Sen’Derrick Marks (+0.7)

Color me surprised to see Andre Branch anywhere near the top of the defensive grades. Branch’s 3 QB hurries netted him a (+1.8) pass rush grade. It was against a banged up offensive line, but we’ll let Branch have this small victory. Deaderick and Marks have been two of the better players on the Jaguars defense – Marks continues to make an impact in the run defense (+1.9) and Deaderick managed to notch an impressive, positive grade (+0.5) in pass coverage from the defensive tackle spot

Most Disappointing Grades: Will Rackley (-3.5), Chad Henne (-30), D.J. Williams (-2.6), Johnathan Cyprien (-3.1), Josh Evans(-2.0)

Will Rackley’s laughably bad play carried over into week 3 and he’s in serious danger of losing his starting spot. Allowing a sack and 2 QB hurries brought down his pass blocking grade, but his run blocking (-2.4) was the worst among offensive linemen. Chad Henne’s meager passing statistics (47.4% completion, 235 yards,  2 INTS) weren’t as bad as his advanced numbers. He continues to check down too often early in the game and his lack of pocket presence and awareness is really evident with the poor offensive line play. Henne’s two interceptions came within ten yards of the line of scrimmage.

The Jaguars’ secondary got torched by Russell Wilson, so it’s no surprise to see some of the secondary at the bottom of the grading. Cyprien’s continued presence in the worst grades is somewhat concerning, but his ability as a playmaker is starting to emerge and that should change. He had the worst run defense (-2.1) and pass coverage (-2.5) grades of any defensive player. Josh Evans got thrown into the fire after Dwight Lowery’s injury and had a hard time adjusting to the speed of the game. He gave up two touchdowns when he was assigned on Sidney Rice.

Other notes:

• Demetrius McCray was one of the few highlights on defense (+0.6 overall grade). He performed much better than a 7th round rookie should against the best team in the league.
• Jason Babin had an impact as a pass rusher (+1.2 grade), but a bad penalty hurt his grade for the second straight week.
• Maurice Jones-Drew isn’t getting much help from the offensive line, but he seems to be a step slow and doesn’t have the ability to plant his foot and rocket through the gaps he does get. He only caused two missed tackles and had a scant 2.3 yards/rush.

– Daniel Lago

Yell at me on Twitter @dlago89