Jacksonville Jaguars Week 4 Power Rankings: Jekyll and Hyde
By Daniel Lago
The Jacksonville Jaguars are doing their best to try and confuse everyone about how good they actually are, as evidenced by the week 4 power rankings.
The Jaguars are good again!
After laying an egg at home against the Tennessee Titans in week 2, it appeared the Jacksonville Jaguars were reverting back to the level of mediocrity (or lower) that they’ve mired in for the last decade. Week 1 looked like a fluky win and the team looked like it was going to have it’s season torpedoed yet again by poor quarterback play. I picked the Ravens to win handily.
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It me, a stupid idiot.
The Jaguars sure showed me, especially quarterback Blake Bortles who arguably had his best overall game as a professional. He made some terrific throws and really was the driver on offense against a defense that some were pegging as the best in the NFL.
Moving forward, the team can now feel comfortable letting Blake take some shots earlier in games to help open up running lanes for Leonard Fournette. I mentioned this in the game recap, but the Jaguars can be a force in the AFC if Bortles can play even half as good as he did on Sunday on a regular basis.
Here’s how Jacksonville’s dominant performance on Sunday reverberated in the power rankings around the web:
"15. Jacksonville Jaguars (2-1, LW: 24)If you somehow slept through Week 2, you’ve seen the Jaguars play 120 minutes of football and look like a dominant, incredible team. They outscored the Texans and Ravens 73-14 in those games. But still, the way they fell apart when Blake Bortles struggled in Week 2 is also on their record. It’s an impossible team to get a read on right now."
"14. Jacksonville JaguarsThe 44-7 thrashing of the Ravens, the complete dominance of the defense and Marcedes Lewis‘ three scores were all shocking. After watching three games of the Jaguars‘ 2017 catalogue, I can say this much is certain: Throwing the football against this group will not be easy. So if the Jags can continue to get turnover-free-ish football from Blake Bortles, there’s no reason 9-7 and an AFC South division title isn’t possible."
"20. Jacksonville Jaguars2017 record: 2-1Week 3 ranking: No. 25Blake Bortles: 48.1 Total QBR. Over the past three seasons, Bortles is 3-0 with a 69 Total QBR in London games. Unfortunately for him, he’s 7-25 everywhere else in that time with a sub-45 QBR. Bortles is not only back on American soil, but will be on the road for three of the next four games."
My take:
As expected, the rankings are a little bit all over the place for the Jaguars but they are certainly higher than they were last week. Elliot Harrison over at NFL Network and Frank Schwab over at Yahoo have both been particularly tough on the Jaguars and Blake Bortles, but they have them ranked higher than most other national pundits.
ESPN is still playing Debbie Downer, pulling a “yeah, but” on Bortles’ terrific London performance by essentially calling it an outlier.
While they probably aren’t wrong, this certainly doesn’t appear to be the same Jaguars team we’ve seen over the last three years. Bortles has more talent around him than ever and maybe, just maybe, he’ll pay a little looser knowing he doesn’t have to try and put the team on his back every.
As for me, I think the 16-18 range is fine for now If the Jaguars go ahead and take care of business this week in New York, they should climb up.