Jacksonville Jaguars Week 3 Power Rankings: Because Jaguars again
By Daniel Lago
The Jacksonville Jaguars looked like the clear top contender for the AFC South in week 1, but they looked genuinely awful in week 2 against the Titans.
That was a fun week wasn’t it? The Jacksonville Jaguars had their fans riding high after a week 1 trouncing of the Houston Texans and it made it easy to forget the albatross that is the quarterback situation in North Florida.
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In all honestly, the Jaguars are not exactly the team we saw in week 1 beating up on the Texans, nor are they the team we saw in week 2 giving up in the second half of a blowout loss to the Titans. The Jaguars are both and everything in between. The question now is whether or not we’ll see week 1 Jaguars or week 2 Jaguars more often for the final 14 games of the 2017 regular season.
A significant driver in answering that question will be quarterback Blake Bortles (or perhaps Ryan Nassib?), and that doesn’t inspire much confidence.
Here’s how Jacksonville’s lackluster performance on Sunday reverberated in the power rankings around the web:
"24. Jacksonville Jaguars (1-1, LW: 22)The blowout against the Titans was a rough loss, because it erases all the momentum from that Week 1 win. It also was a reminder that Blake Bortles hasn’t gotten any better."
"23. JaguarsThe offense is pedestrian, which is why the defense will be stressed all season long. They have to be able to throw it better."
"22. Jacksonville JaguarsThought the tide turned Sunday when Blake Bortles saw two of his passes tipped into the loving arms of Titans defenders. The first pick came on an Avery Williamson batted ball. The second was on a hurried slant, with Bortles throwing it behind Marqise Lee. Up until that point, Jacksonville had found itself in a defensive tug-of-war, the kind of game the Jags’ defense is built to win. Tennessee went up 9-3, then capitalized repeatedly with ideal field position. Of course, a bunch of crap went down after that. Well, not Titans running back Derrick Henry — he never went down."
"25. Jacksonville Jaguars2017 record: 1-1Week 2 ranking: No. 21A 22-point win was followed by a 21-point loss for Jacksonville. The good news is if the Jags can get stability at quarterback, the team could really be going somewhere. Leonard Fournette is second in rushes and grinding out yards, and the pass defense has yielded the fourth-best opponent Total QBR."
My take:
I’m genuinely surprised the Jaguars aren’t lower in these rankings, but that’s a product of just how bad some other teams have looked for two straight weeks. The Cincinnati Bengals have yet to score a touchdown, the Indianapolis Colts are arguably the least talented team in the NFL without Andrew Luck, the Arizona Cardinals could barely beat the aforementioned awful Colts, and the Jets don’t have much going for them.
All that being said, there’s still no reason to give the Jaguars the benefit of the doubt against any team. The week 2 loss was classic 2012-2016 Jaguars and the team needs to shake off the stink of that era before I consider them favorites against any other team.