Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Houston Texans: Friday Fact or Fiction
By Daniel Lago
The Jaguars will record a sack: FICTION
The Jacksonville Jaguars defense has improved vastly this season, to the point where they are an average, and at times above-average, unit. They have a solid secondary, good linebacker play, and a few impact defensive lineman.
Unfortunately, they still don’t have a pass rush.
Former third overall pick Dante Fowler Jr. is still clueless as an edge rusher, so the team has relied solely on third round pick Yannick Ngakoue to provide a perimeter pass rush. He’s exceeded expectations, but he hasn’t done it on a consistent basis and it’s held this defense back from being great.
The Jaguars will likely be able to draft a top tier pass rusher next May thanks to yet another high draft pick, but for now they are not going to bother opposing quarterbacks very much.
Are the Jaguars going to win another game this season? This Sunday might be their best chance, but they are facing a desperate Texans team that needs to continue winning to stay in the playoff hunt.
And again, I have to go back to the fact that Bill O’Brien is a pretty good coach. Gus Bradley is literally the worst head coach in the history of the NFL. It starts and ends there. The Jaguars have some talent and should be to able to compete/defeat a team like the Texans, but it’s completely irrelevant when the players aren’t prepared.
The other aspect here is that at some point, the despondence has to set in on the players as they know Bradley will be fired and this entire season is a dumpster fire. While most guys will continue to play hard simply because they have to, we’re going to probably start seeing some quit in a few players. The Texans win this one with ease.
PREDICTION: Texans 24 – Jaguars 10