Jaguars beat Saints on Thursday Night, get 5th win of the 2023 season: 3 takeaways

1. The Jaguars have shown they can build leads cut cannot put teams away

A win is a win, regardless of how pretty or ugly it is. The Jags have won five games, three in a row, and nobody will take that away from them. Having said that, it's a bit concerning that they let teams hang around. The offense will build an early lead and the defense will keep opponents in check but the outcome of the game was still in question late in the fourth quarter. Good teams don't do that.

Not finishing teams off has worked against the New Orleans Saints, the Atlanta Falcons, and even the jetlagged Buffalo Bills. But it's hard to see that approach working against the San Francisco 49ers or in the playoffs for that matter. By the start of the fourth quarter, Jacskonville had run just seven plays. That simply won't cut it against better opponents.

The silver lining is that it's still somewhat early in the season for the Jaguars to fix this issue. Moreover, they're currently better than they were at the same point last year, so you could say that they have improved. After Week 7 in 2022, Jacksonville was 2-5. Then again, not much was expected from the Jags last year.

The bottom line is that the Jacksonville Jaguars have shown they can win games this season. They next need to learn to dispose of teams once they've built a lead. If they do, they will then join the conversation as one of the top teams in the NFL. This weekend though, they should enjoy their fifth win of the year and the extra rest that comes with playing on Thursday Night Football.

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