3 positive stats from Jaguars loss to Steelers in preseason Week 2

2. The Jaguars kept the number of penalties under control

The Jaguars committed 104 penalties last year, good for 16th in the league. While plenty of clubs fared much worse, this is an area where Jacksonville must improve in 2022 and so far, they’re off to a good start. One week after getting flagged four times, Jacksonville only had three penalties against the Steelers. That’s surely a reflection of the discipline head coach Doug Pederson has tried to instill on the team.

Pederson has surely made penalties a point of emphasis in practice. Under Urban Meyer, it was common to see the Jags struggle to line up or get flagged at the worst possible time. That was due to Meyer’s attention to detail or lack thereof.

Similarly, Jawaan Taylor, one of the most penalized players in the whole league last year, hasn’t picked up a single penalty on 51 offensive snaps in the preseason and the penalties the Jags picked up against the Steelers are correctable.

Left tackle Cam Robinson was penalized for holding on the Jaguars’ second drive of the game. The second one was a roughing the passer call against defensive end Roy Robertson Harris. And the last one was of the delay-of-game variety towards the end of the second quarter and at that point, Jacksonville just wanted to eat up the clock to get to halftime.

The Jaguars should be more competitive than they were last year and picking up penalties at the wrong time could be the difference between winning and losing a close game, that’s why they need to keep playing disciplined football.