Jacksonville Jaguars Week 13 Power Rankings: A slight hiccup
By Daniel Lago
After a rough showing against the Arizona Cardinals, the Jacksonville Jaguars find themselves wondering how far they go this season with their current QB situation.
While the Jacksonville Jaguars remain in a good spot in terms of the AFC playoff picture, it’s hard not to be disappointed with them after losing to Blaine Gabbert and the Arizona Cardinals.
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There’s plenty of blame to go around, from the inability to consistently pass the ball to the coaching staff brainfarting at the end of the game, but overall it was just disheartening to see the Jaguars fall to lesser opponent.
In a way, the loss to the Cardinals was a long time coming, considering just how tenuous the Jaguars’ wins had been in the previous weeks. The offense has been ineffective since the bye week for the most part and it’s a lot to ask the defense to carry the load time and time again.
It’s certainly not time to panic, but it might be time to reevaluate this team’s ceiling as the playoffs come around.
So where does that leave them in the power rankings? Lets find out:
"9. Jacksonville Jaguars (7-3, LW: 12)The good news for the Jaguars is they will win the tiebreaker over the Titans as long as they beat the Colts and Texans over the next three weeks, and then beat the Titans in Week 17. If the Jaguars beat the Titans in the finale, they’ll split the season series, which is the first tiebreaker. If the Jaguars also beat the Colts and Texans they’ll finish 5-1 in division games, which is the second tiebreaker, and if the Titans lose to the Jaguars in Week 17 they’ll have at least two AFC South losses."
"13. JaguarsThey just aren’t good enough on offense to be a real threat come playoff time. They can’t just think they can line up and run it every play and win."
"8. Jacksonville JaguarsNot the time to bail on these Jaguars. Yes, it was the artist formerly known as “Blame” Gabbert dealing Doug Marrone‘s group a narrow if unanticipated loss to, yes, the Cardinals. Fun to see Calais Campbell get a touchdown in his return to Arizona. Seriously, what are the chances of a defensive lineman the size of Herman Munster scoring in his first game against his former team in front of his old crowd? Weird but rad. Not rad: letting Gabbert hit on successive passes to push Arizona into field-goal range, and Phil Dawson hitting a high-degree-of-difficulty kick to seal the Jacksonville defeat. I think if that game goes to OT, the Jags’ D prevails."
"11. Jacksonville Jaguars2017 record: 7-4Week 12 ranking: No. 7Pick something related to pass defense and odds are the Jaguars are leading in it. They’ve allowed the fewest yards per attempt (5.9), passing yards (1,856) and passing touchdowns (9) and posted the best TD-INT ratio (0.64). They’ve also sacked the quarterback a league-high 41 times."
My take:
I don’t disagree with any of the takes above. I agree with Harrison that the Jaguars probably win that game if it goes to overtime (whether it was by better coaching or if Dawson missed the long field goal at the end).
Prisco is blunt about the Jaguars chances in the postseason if they don’t fix the offense and I don’t think anyone would disagree. The Jaguars have to rekindle their running game at the very least if they want to be a threat to one of the AFC powers in January.