Jacksonville Jaguars primed to have the game of the year across the pond?
By Billy Long
Could the annual trip to London for the Jacksonville Jaguars be the stage for the NFL’s best game in 2018?
What a difference a year can make. The Jacksonville Jaguars spent nearly an entire decade stuck in the mud, unable to find even one winning season. After a 3-13 campaign in 2016, the team was rewarded with zero primetime games in 2017, even absent a Thursday Night Football spot that always seemed to be on the schedule despite the futility.
But the Jaguars finally put all the pieces together, and in 2017, everything finally clicked. A 10-6 season cemented a AFC South championship, and propelled Jacksonville all the way to the conference championship game.
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Now, with the 2018 season on the horizon, the team enters with high expectations with one of the league’s most talented rosters. With that, the Jaguars are in line for multiple marquee matchups next year.
‘Good Morning Football’ debated which head-to-head in the league is set up to be the best game of the season, and analyst Nate Burleson thinks the Jaguars’ London battle with the Philadelphia Eagles will fit that bill.
The matchup was painfully close to being a rematch of Super Bowl 52, and both teams are equipped to make a run to the 53rd edition of the big game.
Jacksonville has been on fire in the annual overseas game, having won three in a row, including a 44-7 thrashing of the Baltimore Ravens in 2017. Logic suggests a victory against the Eagles won’t come nearly that easy.
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Both rosters are absolutely stacked, with two ferocious defenses. This will be a smashmouth style game, but don’t underestimate the chances of fireworks on offense. Philly has obviously shown its explosiveness, and the Jaguars have averaged 36 points in the last three London victories.
The game is right in the heart of the schedule and will be a vital measuring stick on where both teams stand at the end of October. This is the type of matchup that could be the catapult that springs the victor to a run to the Super Bowl.
On a final note, it speaks volumes about the Jacksonville Jaguars that this is one of at least three games involving the team that could have easily made the conversation.