Is it really surprising that the Jacksonville Jaguars are currently 0-2? Not really, they haven’t been very good over the last ten years. Heck, their only winning season, back in 2017, was an outlier, not the norm.
On the other hand, the Jags’ slow start surely is disappointing. Head coach Urban Meyer, along with general manager Trent Baalke spent the offseason making upgrades to the roster. They brought in players that would help them implement their vision and moved on from those that didn’t fit the program.
Furthermore, Meyer talked about giving the players and the best of the best available resources and put an emphasis on sports performance, recovery, and nutrition. So what do the Jaguars have to show for after all the changes they made? Not much and that’s what makes the last two losses so frustrating.
Now, it’s unfair to judge Meyer’s tenure as a head coach after just two games. He’s in the early stages of a potentially lengthy rebuild. He previously say he expects this process to last one year, but it may take a bit longer. When he arrived, the team was devoid of talent and coming off one of the worst seasons in franchise history. In fact, he inherited a losing streak, which could help him make NFL history for the wrong reasons.
Moving forward, there’s nothing to do but trust the process. Keep doing what’s working and fix what it isn’t. Speaking of, here are three horrible stats that help explain the Jaguars’ loss to the Broncos.
1. The Jacksonville Jaguars couldn’t get their passing game going.
Let’s get this one out of the way. You won’t win many football games if you can’t pass the ball. 30 or 40 years ago, you could get by with a good running back, a stout defense, and a serviceable game manager. That strategy no longer works in today’s NFL. To win nowadays, you have to be able to throw efficiently.
The Jaguars lost in Week 2 despite the fact that they were the first team to score, and a big reason was their inability to get their passing game going. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence went 14-of-33 yards for 118 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. You aren’t going to win many games with that kind of performance.
Yes, the Jags fell behind early, and the game plan might have not been the best but Lawrence himself conceded that he needs to play better, and he will. The Clemson Tiger just made his NFL start and he will have games like this past one every now and then. As long as they don’t become the norm, he and Jacksonville’s passing game will continue to get better.
Crafting a better game plan, one that enhances Lawrence’s strengths, should also help. That’s where the coaching staff comes in. They need to look back at his Clemson tape and add some of the concepts that helped him thrive during his collegiate years.
Call it being optimistic, but things are going to get better before they get worse, and Lawrence should continue to get better as the season progresses.
2. The Jacksonville Jaguars once again didn’t use James Robinson.
One of the stats that stood out the most in the Jaguars’ Week 1 loss to the Houston Texans was the carries or lack thereof running James Robinson got. The former Redbird got a measly six rushes despite the fact that he showed in 2020 that he can carry a big workload. To add insult to injury, Carlos Hyde got more carries than Robinson.
The case could be made that the Jags abandoned the run in the season opener because they fell behind and still had a shot at winning the games. For that reason, it was reasonable to expect Jacksonville to have a more balanced game plan and run the ball more often in Week 2. But it wasn’t meant to be. Robinson surely ran the all more times (16), but not enough to carry the team on his shoulders. Although the second-year running back average 4.2 yards per carry, the Jags’ stopped feeding him the ball.
On Monday, head coach Urban Meyer had a sitdown with the local media, and implied that the Jags moved away from the run because “they were trying to get back in the game”. Maybe offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell will finally find the right balance of running and passing plays in Week 3 but he needs to make it a priority to give Robinson the ball.
The silver lining is that the Illinois State product made history against Denver. He is one of 10 players in NFL history to record at least 50 scrimmage yards in each of their first 16 career games.
3. The Jacksonville Jaguars didn’t get much production from their rookies.
Putting aside running back Travis Etienne, who is out for the year with a Lisfranc injury, or wide receiver Jalen Camp, who was released in the last round of roster cuts, the Jaguars’ didn’t get much production from their rookie class in Week 2.
Trevor Lawrence struggled but cornerback Tyson Campbell wasn’t much better, giving up four passes for 54 yards. On the bright side, he didn’t give up a touchdown. Safety Andre Cisco again had a limited role and finished the game with 18 snaps (26 percent of the team’s defensive snaps). The former Syracuse Orangeman didn’t have a bad game per se but fellow safety Andrew Wingard got more playing time for the second consecutive week.
Tight end Luke Farrrell was targeted twice and caught one pass for six yards. Then, there are offensive tackle Walker Little, outside linebacker Jordan Smith and Jay Tufele. Although all of them are on the active roster, the three of them were inactive against the Broncos.
Smith has been limited in practice over the last two weeks, so his presence in the list of inactives makes sense but what about Little and Tufele? If they aren’t playing is because the coaching staff may not think they’re ready to contribute yet, and that should be a cause for concern. It’s not as if the Jags’ have a surplus of playmakers. Not every rookie is the same, and some take more time to develop than others. Nevertheless, the Jaguars’ 2021 draft class hasn’t had a big impact in the first two games of the season.