Jacksonville Jaguars: Is the sky falling?
By Luke Sims
An exposed Jacksonville Jaguars squad struggled to a win over the Cincinnati Bengals, prompting the question: Is the sky falling?
14-3 is the score that Jacksonville Jaguars fans will remember from the Preseason Week 3 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.
That score is what the game looked like when the first teams stared each other down. By almost any measurement, the Bengals came out ahead of the Jags in that first half. Even by the eye test, the Bengals looks a class above.
After two solid preseason games in which the Jaguars looked to be building momentum carried over from 2015, it was particularly shocking to see the offense struggle. Gone were the impressive Allen Robinson catches for big gains. Gone was the dominant rushing attack. The Jags just looked a little and a whole lot unprepared.
After the excitement of seeing Jalen Ramsey make big plays, seeing Myles Jack’s aggressive play style, the product on the field just felt stale.
The defense and the offense were so vanilla that it prompted commentator Cris Collinsworth to wonder if the Jags were intentionally sandbagging. “You get the feeling that this offense is keeping some things under their hat for Aaron Rodgers and the Packers,” he noted while calling the game.
It’s a legitimate question, especially with the stark difference of the Bengals game versus the first two preseason games. The Jags legitimately looked like a team out of its depth after looking like it belonged in the two weeks before.
There’s no doubt that the Jags have improved. There’s no doubt they are getting better. Even with Collinsworth’s sandbagging suggestion, it’s just tough to shake the feeling that this was a team that was outmatched against a playoff team like the Bengals. This preseason game, more than any other, was a measuring stick for the Jags and it appears they were found at least a little short.
This isn’t a bad thing, necessarily. It just takes the wind out of the hype sails a little bit. It may temper enthusiasm that was ramping up to 10-win expectations.
Frankly, 2016 is about getting to .500. Anything worse is bad and anything better is great. This is the year the Jags show they can compete and stay with teams that are either on the playoff bubble or already a perennial contender (like the Bengals). .500 is a big step forward for a team that hasn’t been there since 2010 and hasn’t had a winning season since 2007.
This is the preseason. These kinds of efforts happen and should be taken with a grain of salt. Even if taken super seriously, the sobering reality is that the Jacksonville Jaguars are probably right where they belong: developing.
Related Story: What really matters from the Jags-Bengals game
No, the sky isn’t falling. No, this isn’t the start of a complete dumpster fire. There are winnable games on the Jags schedule this season and they’re poised to take a big step forward. The Jags-Bengals game is just a strong reminder that there’s a lot more work to be done.