Jacksonville Jaguars Week 5 Power Rankings: Jaguars still a mystery
By Daniel Lago
The Jacksonville Jaguars sit atop the AFC South, but they don’t feel like a playoff team after their week 4 loss to the New York Jets.
Up and down.
That’s the story of the 2017 season so far for the Jacksonville Jaguars. They set the world on fire in week 1 in a dominant win over the Texans, but then they laid an egg at home in an embarrassing loss to the Tennessee Titans.
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The Jaguars followed that up by absolutely crushing the Baltimore Ravens in London.
So naturally, the Jaguars went into the Meadowlands and handed away a perfectly winnable game to the New York Jets this past weekend.
It’s hard to get a hand on what kind of team the Jacksonville Jaguars are, but for now it’s probably safe to assume they are an average team that can be good if things break right for them. That break usually has to be Blake Bortles playing well, but there are other problems on the team besides the quarterback.
A microcosm of the confusion that is the Jaguars, here’s a look at how the Jaguars stack up in the power rankings around the web:
"22. Jacksonville Jaguars (2-2, LW: 15)From our good friend Eric Edholm: From 6:06 in the second quarter until the end of overtime against the Jets, Blake Bortles was 8 of 23 for 59 yards and an interception. Bortles missed his final nine passes. Chad Henne isn’t good, but it’s time to try. They might be wasting an otherwise good team this season. No offense to the Jets, but the Jaguars team we saw in Weeks 1 and 3 should not be losing to them."
"23. JaguarsWhat happened to the defense against the Jets? Now they have to regroup on the road against the Steelers. Good luck."
"21. Jacksonville JaguarsMaybe it was a trap game. Are the Jaguars good enough to have trap games? Usually, that phrase is reserved for a loss in which a playoff-bound team slips up against a weak opponent whilst looking forward a few weeks. Perhaps the second part holds true. If Jacksonville is a contender, Doug Marrone’s group must hold its water after blowout wins. For the record … the Jags dominated the Texans, then got wiped in Nashville. Look like the ’99 Brunell bunch in London one week, then fall to the Jettttttttttttttts the next."
"24. Jacksonville Jaguars2017 record: 2-2Week 4 ranking: No. 20The Jaguars have shown flashes of good and bad this season, and the defense is no exception. The pass rush has generated a league-best 18 sacks through four weeks, but the rushing defense has allowed a league-worst 5.7 yards per rush."
My take:
I can’t really disagree with any of these takes. The Jaguars are absolutely still a bottom-half of the league type team right now. The defense has been outstanding, but the Jaguars have no semblance of consistency on offense.
Can the Jaguars make the playoffs? Sure, but it’s hard to really buy into them right now given the way they’ve performed in the two losses.
The Jaguars need to string together a couple of wins before we can expect them be ranked in the top 20, let alone in the teens where we generally see playoff teams.
For now, the low 20s is about where the team should be.