FanSided’s NFL Power Rankings: Where do the Jaguars fall?

Did the Jaguars improve their power poll rankings with their performance this past Sunday?

Fansided’s Matt Verderame has a point. The Jaguars don’t have an offense that scares anyone right now, but Gardner Minshew is entertaining to watch.

I wonder if offensive coordinator John DeFilippo will open the playbook up a little bit on Thursday night when Jacksonville hosts the Tennessee Titans for another AFC South clash. If you haven’t noticed, the Titans have owned the Jaguars of late and embarrassed them last season on Thursday night football. After a 9-6 contest in the third week of the season at TIAA Bank Field last year, the Titans whipped up on the Jaguars 33-9 where Derrick Henry ran all over the team’s defense.

238 yards and four touchdowns later, Henry showed the defense had holes that a truck could run through. It was the climax of how bad this team looked at times last season. Now, with their first encounter set for tonight and Minshew at the controls of the offense, will this team muster more than the 12 points it managed last Sunday at Houston?

We the fans wait with bated breath.

Verderame’s recent NFL power poll has the team from North Florida firmly entrenched as the 26th worst team in the league, one spot lower than where he had them ranked last week.

Russell Baxter of FanSided.com was a bit more kind to the Jaguars this week with his power rankings, moving them up one spot from 31st in the league to 30th overall. He wrote there was an improvement in how the team played this past weekend, as opposed to the 40-26 beating they took from the Kansas City Chiefs.

"“In rookie quarterback Gardner Minshew’s first start, his team and the host Texans settled for a combined four field goals and two touchdowns by game’s end,” Baxter added. “The Jaguars were down 6-3 at halftime and Doug Marrone’s team hung around all afternoon, limiting Houston’s explosive offense to 263 total yards while sacking Deshaun Watson four times.”"

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But if you look at the game, this was more about the team’s lack of offensive function until the waning moments of the contest. The defense, a unit that looked completely different from the first game of the season, was responsible for keeping Jacksonville’s victory hopes alive until Minshew could find a rhythm.

Now, the team faces another AFC South opponent in what can be inferred as a “must-win” game.

"“Marrone’s team returns home but only has a few days to prepare for a Titans team that has given the Jaguars fits for years,” writes Baxter. “Jacksonville has dropped four straight and six of the last seven meetings dating back to the clubs’ second clash in 2015. In those last four losses, the Jaguars have been outdone by a combined 91-41 score.”"