Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Cincinnati Bengals: Friday Fact or Fiction

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The Jacksonville Jaguars have tough stretch of games ahead of them, and it’s starts by visiting the Bengals in Cincinnati. The Jaguars came out strong in last week’s game against the Miami Dolphins, but a few enormous mistakes on the part of rookie quarterback

put the team in a hole too big to climb out of. Moving forward, the Jaguars need Bortles to learn from his mistakes and start limiting the poor decisions that have plagued this offense over the past few weeks.

The Benglas come into this game with plenty of injury questions, and they could be without several key players, including running back Giovani Bernard.

With all that in mind, here are my rock solid predictions for this week’s game:

Denard Robinson will run for over 100 yards: FACT

Denard Robinson has come out of nowhere and emerged as the Jaguars’ primary running back, and his two consecutive games of over 100 yards rushing indicates it may not be a short term phenomenon. Robinson has been extremely effective running the ball between the tackles in addition to getting to the edge. The Bengals come into this game with the 29th ranked rushing defense, allowing 140.7 yards per game on the ground. The Jaguars offensive line has progressed noticeably over the past 5 weeks and they should be able to do a good job on what’s been a disappointing Bengals defensive line.

Sen’Derrick Marks and Ryan Davis will each get a sack: FACT

The Jaguars don’t really have a marquee edge rusher to put pressure on the quarterback, but the guys in the interior have more than made up for it. Sen’Derrick Marks is playing at a Pro Bowl level and deserves more attention for what he’s done, and Ryan Davis has been the team’s best pure pass rusher despite his limited playing time. The defensive line duo is going to be matched up against Russell Bodine, who happens to be the 2nd worst center in football according to Pro Football Focus (an overall grade of -10.5). The Jaguars surprisingly have been one of the best teams in football at getting pressure on the quarterback, and that should continue on Sunday.

The Jaguars defense will limit Andy Dalton to less than 200 yards passing: FICTION

The Bengals offense has been hot-and-cold this entire season, but they should be getting back All Pro wide receiver A.J. Green. The Bengals look completely different on offense with and without Green, especially in reference to Andy Dalton’s ability to test the deep part of the field. Dalton has had a couple of dud games where he’s thrown for less than 200 yards, but he should be helped out tremendously by the return of his stud receiver.

The Jaguars are in a tough spot going on the road to face a playoff caliber team. Still, if you studied last week’s game against the Dolphins closely, the Jaguars really don’t seem to be too far off from being a team that can win close games against good competition. They looked like the better team last week – they just happened to spot the Dolphins 14 points for free thanks to Bortles. The offensive line is starting to play well, the running game actually exists, the secondary stopped giving up a ton of huge plays, and the defensive line is getting to the quarterback. The Jaguars are going to come out and play a great game at some point this season. Is it going to be this week? Why not.

PREDICTION: Jaguars 23- Bengals 20