Philip Rivers Threatens Jacksonville Jaguars Secondary

Through three games the Jacksonville Jaguars have surrendered a ridiculous amount of yards and a ridiculous amount of points. The 1,398 yards and 119 points surrendered are easily the league high. When the Jaguars welcome Philip Rivers and the San Diego Charges on Sunday, that looks like it may continue. Philip Rivers threatens the Jacksonville Jaguars secondary more than anybody they’ve face yet this season.

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The big thing to look at is that the Chargers are lacking a major rushing threat. Ryan Matthews is out and Danny Woodhead is on injured reserve. Donald Brown figures to be a big part of the offense, but his 40 rushes for just 81 yards don’t indicate that he’ll be able to throw the offense on his back against the Jaguars.

Fortunately for Brown, he won’t have to because the Chargers are quarterback Philip Rivers’s team and he’s prime to bust out a big game.

Rivers hasn’t thrown for 300 yards yet this season. He is more than capable of doing that and he has the receiving talent on the outside and at the tight end spot to make him very dangerous against the Jags. He’s going to get a big game eventually and the Jaguars seem like a prime secondary to exploit. The Jacksonville pass rush has been decent, but it isn’t going to overwhelm an offensive line that has allowed Rivers to hit the turf just twice.

The Jags allow more yards through the air than any other team. The 918 yards they’ve allowed is over 300 on average for each game so far this season. Quarterbacks Nick Foles, Andrew Luck, and Kirk Cousins are good, but they aren’t in the prime of their careers like Rivers is. Rivers brings 10 years of experience with him and that is an ominous cloud to hang over the Jaguars’ secondary.

Alan Ball, Dwayne Gratz, and Jonathan Cyprien haven’t been able to jump to the next level they showed they may have last year. This isn’t as surprising for Ball who was a journeyman cornerback before coming to Jacksonville, but the other two were rookies last season looking to expand on moderately successful first seasons in the NFL. Instead they have struggled a bit and it has been jolting for the defense. The team focused on improving the defensive line this past offseason (and it has) with the expectation that the secondary would be able to perform at least at the same level it did last season.

It hasn’t.

Philip Rivers will be the biggest threat that the secondary has faced so far this season. We’ll have to see how the secondary responds and if they will be able to match the perpetual intensity that Rivers plays with. It doesn’t look like a good game to rebound after Luck’s dismantling of the defense last week. But the Jacksonville defense is backed against a wall and must show that they can play.