Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Chicago Bears: Friday Fact or Fiction
By Daniel Lago
Brian Hoyer will throw an interception: FICTION
The Jacksonville Jaguars faced Brian Hoyer twice in 2015 when he was a member of the Houston Texans. The first meeting was a somewhat embarrassing home less where Hoyer looked like an efficient and capable starter (24 of 36 for 293 yards with 3 touchdowns and no interceptions). The second game was the final one of the season and was truly an atrocious display of football on the Jaguars part. Hoyer didn’t have nearly as good a game (25 of 40 for 249 yards with 1 touchdown and one interception), but he didn’t need to since the Jaguars were downright awful on both sides of the ball.
Hoyer has shown he isn’t a playoff-caliber quarterback, but he is more than functional against bad teams. And guess what? Right now, the Jaguars are a bad team. They don’t have an identity on offense right now and the defense has a lot of young pieces that need to show more despite flashing enough to warrant some encouragement.
The question for this game regarding Hoyer is whether or not the Jaguars can get consistent pressure on him. Yannick Ngakoue and Dante Fowler Jr. are going to have to pick up the slack this week since the Bears have some of the best guard play in the league (Josh Sitton and Kyle Long are pretty good), so the interior pressure will be somewhat diminished. I like the two young edge rushers, but I don’t think they are quite ready to shoulder the load and carry the defense to a win. I think Hoyer will be free of pressure most of the time and will keep a clean sheet on Sunday.