Jacksonville Jaguars Have To Stop The Three and Outs

Picking up a first down seems incredibly difficult for the Jacksonville Jaguars on any given week. On Sunday against the New York Giants, they fortunately found ways to string a few together and put up 11 offensive points.

It just felt incredibly difficult.

First downs are the lifeblood of offenses in the NFL. You get three tries to pick up ten yards and then a fourth down to either push your luck or play the game of field position. Honestly, if you don’t have that first down after three plays, you’re usually better punting. It’s just ten yards after all.

For drives that don’t manage a single first down, we use the term “three and out” meaning the offense had its shot and they blew it without managing a measly ten yards. Sometimes it’s close. Sometimes it’s not. Three and outs are always a measure of offensive futility.

The Jacksonville Jaguars had five three and outs on Sunday. That’s five out of 11 legitimate drives (we won’t count victory formation at the end). Nearly every other drive the offense marched on the field led to nothing but three plays, then back to the bench.

It’s no wonder the Jaguar defense always seems so exhausted at the end of the day!

Three and outs force more pressure on the defense, especially when your offense only scores on three of your 11 drives. It’s tough to get any momentum going and it doesn’t build confidence for your defensive players that if they get the opposition off the field, good things will happen.

The three and outs killed momentum for the Jaguars right from the start on Sunday. They opened the game with three drives, nine plays total, for all of -1 yard. That’s pretty much the definition of inept. They were able to pick up first downs on their next two drives (terminating in a field goal and the end of the half) but saw the three and outs loom large again in the fourth quarter, when two drives in a row yielded six plays for just one yard.

I don’t know which drives were scarier, the starting drives or the fourth quarter ones as the Giants caught up.

The Jaguars have to move the chains at least once when they are on offense. The defense is owed that at least. The offense owes it to themselves. Having nearly 50% of your drives end in just three plays is a terrible indicator of problems across the offense.