The Jacksonville Jaguars showed in Week 15 that teams can’t afford to take them lightly anymore. Cornerback Trevon Diggs knew it but the Dallas Cowboys still came out of TIAA Bank Field with the fourth loss of the season.
Just one week ago, the Tennesse Titans were genuinely shocked that they lost to their division foes but they should’ve known better. After all, the Jags beat a pretty talented Baltimore Ravens team and Trevor Lawrence is playing the best football of his young career. Looking back, the Titans didn’t expect the Jaguars to be playing at a high level right now.
The Cowboys probably thought they had already subdued the Jags heading into the fourth quarter but didn’t deliver the final blow, which came back to haunt them and ultimately led to their undoing in overtime.
Of course, the Jaguars deserve credit for fighting back. After all, they wouldn’t have come on top if both the offense and the defense hadn’t done their job. Trevor Lawrence played like a top 10 quarterback and safety Rayshawn Jenkins registered two clutch interceptions, including the game-winning pick 6. With that in mind, here are three compelling stats that also explain the Jacksonville win in overtime.
3. The Jaguars allowed one sack vs. the Cowboys’ ferocious defensive front
One is more than zero but still less (and better in this case) than two or three, which is the amount of sacks the Cowboys’ defense generally registers this season. In fact, they’ve logged three quarterback takedowns or more in a game nine times and the only time they didn’t get one was against the Houston Texans in Week 14.
Against the Jaguars, DeMarcus Lawrence, Micah Parsons, and the rest of the Dallas defensive front generated 19 pressures but they only brought Trevor Lawrence down once. Hats off to the offensive line, especially when you take into account that they were without Jawaan Taylor and later Cam Robinson at some point in the game.
It wasn’t always perfect but Lawrence had enough time to throw because of the hog mollies up front.
2. The Jaguars averaged 7.1 yards per run vs. the Cowboys in Week 15
Trevor Lawrence had a productive outing against Dallas, completing 64.29 percent of his passes for 318 yards with four touchdowns and one interception but the Jaguars’ emphasis on running the ball also played a huge role in the win.
Establishing the run was always going to be a key to beating one of the best defenses in the NFL. After all, an effective running game was going to lessen the impact of the Cowboys’ pass rush and forced them to load the box more than they would’ve liked.
Although Travis Etienne lost a fumble early in the game — his second one in the last three weeks — the coaching staff didn’t lose their confidence in him and kept feeding him the ball with positive results. The former Clemson Tiger logged his first 100-yard game since Week 9 against the Las Vegas Raiders.
In Week 15, Etienne toted the rock 19 times for 103 yards, and return specialist Jamal Agnew chipped in 52 yards on three carries. Moreover, Trevor Lawrence and JaMycal Hasty added 34 more for a total of 192 yards and a 7.1-yard average per carry.
The Jaguars had had trouble establishing the run in previous weeks. Etienne got hurt against the Baltimore Ravens while Jacksonville had to stop running the ball once they started trailing the Detroit Lions. Similarly, the Jags’ had a favorable matchup through the air against the Titans’ defense. But against the Cowboys, they made it a priority to get Etienne involved and it paid dividends.
1. The Jaguars went 8-12 on 3rd downs vs. the Cowboys
From the get-go, head coach Doug Pederson has shown an affinity to going for it on fourth down, and that’s fine. After all, being aggressive can give teams an edge but the Jaguars didn’t have many fourth-down opportunities against the Cowboys because they had success moving the chains on third down.
All in all, Jacksonville converted on 75 percent of their third-down attempts (eight-of-12). That’s a pretty high rate, especially when you consider they usually roam around the 30 percent mark. This in turn made it possible for the Jags to log 26 first downs and over 500 total yards of offense.
This was arguably the Jaguars’ most productive game of the season and that’s saying something. They scored 38 points against the Los Angeles Chargers but only totaled 413 yards on offense while Lawrence “only” threw for 262 yards. Moreover, the Jags seemed in control for most of that game while they had to fight back against the Cowboys.
Similarly, Jacksonville was 8-of-15 on third downs against the Bolts, so you could make the case that their offense wasn’t nearly as optimized as it was against the Cowboys.
Moving forward, it may not be possible for the Jaguars to sustain such a high third-down conversion rate but it was encouraging to see them play so efficiently in Week 15.