Jaguars get suprisingly high grade despite loss to Colts in Week 6

The Jacksonville Jaguars are currently riding a three-game losing skid, which is kind of surprising when you take into account that they looked sharp in wins over the Indianapolis Colts and the Los Angeles Chargers in back-to-back weeks. However, the Jags had many bright spots in their rematch with Indy and that’s reflected in their grade following their 34-27 loss.

John Breech of CBS Sports assigned grades to all NFL clubs following Sunday’s slate of games and he gave Jacksonville a B. Breech argues that the Jags’ defense played a big role in the rematch with their divisional foes.

"The Jags didn’t make too many mistakes offensively, but Doug Pederson would probably like to have a failed third-quarter call where the Jags ran an option on fourth-and-1 but had for a roughing the passer after a third-and-12 incomplete pass. The penalty gave the Colts a first down on a drive where they eventually scored a TD. The Jaguars can definitely compete in the AFC South, but they’re going to need to clean up their mistakes."

The Jaguars’ offense was pretty efficient in Week 6. Trevor Lawrence had arguably his best game of the season, completing 90 percent of his passes for 165 yards with one passing touchdown, two rushing scores, and no interceptions. Jacksonville also got big plays from all their running backs. Travis Etienne totaled 108 years on 12 touches, James Robinson toted the rock 12 times for 54 yards and JaMycal Hasty had a 61-yard touchdown run.

The defense, on the other hand, had a day to forget. Although they limited the Colts to 45 rushing yards and 2.8 yards per carry, Matt Ryan tore the secondary apart, recording a career-best 42 completions for 389 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. Even though Jacksonville pressured him 20 times, they didn’t manage to sack him even once, which is depressing when you consider that they brought him down five times in Week 5.

The Jaguars have the talent, they just need to put it all together

Trevor Lawrence turned the ball over a combined seven times against the Philadelphia Eagles and the Houston Texans but he bounced back nicely against the Colts. Nevertheless, his outstanding performance wasn’t good enough to help the Jaguars win and that’s because the Jaguars failed to play complementary football, which is something head coach Doug Pederson acknowledged when he met with the local media Monday.

“There are things that are showing up in these games that are self-inflicting”, Pederson said. “Just so happened this week was third downs, in the second half just being able to get off the field defensively. The two DPIs, the roughing the passer kept drives alive for them. So those are all things that we have to eliminate, we have to correct and I’m a big part of that with the coordinators and the team”.

What’s frustrating is that the 2022 Jaguars have shown they can execute at a high level and all their losses could have easily had a different outcome had they played up to their talent level. Just last month, they were among the top teams in the league in most offensive and defensive categories, so it’s fair to wonder what has gone wrong in the last four games.

The good thing is that the Jags have the talent to turn things around but the clock is ticking and if they don’t wake up, they run the risk of throwing a promising season away.