Early Season Recap and What We Should Expect From the Jaguars After the Bye?

Notes on the Jaguars Early Season Stretch

After struggling to finish off promising games in roughly half of their early season contests, the Jacksonville Jaguars find themselves at 3-7 heading into bye week. Perhaps the most telling statistic is that in spite of having over two times as many losses as wins, the Jaguars still hold a positive points differential, the only team with a losing record to do so. This comes from the combination of promising blowout wins over the Los Angeles Chargers and Indianapolis Colts as well as a five-game losing streak filled with one possession margins.

Many fans, including myself, found themselves worried about Mr. Franchise, aka Trevor Lawrence, since he has held an abysmal record when having a chance to win late in games. However, I believe we've seen him turn the corner through some of the toughest situations the past few weeks. In back-to-back weeks, the Jaguars through Lawrence's leadership have scored points late in the second quarter in near must-score situations, including on the road in Arrowhead Stadium. Having attended that game, I was extremely impressed with his poise on their first touchdown drive and his accuracy on key fourth down situations. I left being disappointed in the performance by the team, but the most important player wasn't a part of that.

Although we wish the Jaguars were still deep in the playoff mix, it could potentially take a complete sweep of the remaining schedule to point this team into the postseason. The Jaguars currently trail the Tennessee Titans by 3.5 games and will have a clearer picture following Thursday Night Football. Jacksonville has already began to set up the team for a playoff run in 2023 with the surprising and underrated addition of Calvin Ridley, but there is still more work to be done this season to flip the script for years to come.

Beat Your Rivals and Improve

In my opinion, Jacksonville needs to find a way to win at least three of the remaining games, especially in matchups against the Houston Texans and the Tennessee Titans. Jacksonville has been defeated by Houston in every game since Week 1 of 2017(that's not a typo) and the last time they held a victory over Tennessee was at the dawn of Minshew Mania. The Jaguars were able to end the West Coast Curse in impressive fashion in Week 3, now it's time for this team to prove it can defeat these division rivals and be taken seriously going forward. Besides that, it'd feel a lot better as a fan to beat a division rival that isn't the Indianapolis Colts.

Revitalize and Inspire the Pass Rush

Early this season, we found ourselves talking about Josh Allen as one of the best pass rushers in the entire league, and even heard him state he wanted to be the best player in the NFL this year during the offseason. In contrast, he's essentially become a non-factor for multiple weeks in spite of racking up more quarterback pressures. The Jaguars need home-grown players that can lead and elevate the team, and I can't state enough how important Josh Allen's long-term plans play into this. Not only would Josh Allen becoming that dominant player late in this season go far towards a second contract and keeping our good players, but it would help inspire confidence and aid the development of Travon Walker. Rayshawn Jenkins talked about how players have to set the tone on defense and unfortunately the tone has been nothing more but pressures. A revitalized pass rush will help set up long downs and give the secondary a much needed break in coverage.

Push Lawrence from Good to Great

The final and perhaps most important long-term expectation is for Trevor Lawrence to play great football. Unfortunately separation has returned as a plague on the receiving corps, but Jacksonville has a great running back that can keep the offense churning and free up spots in coverage for receivers. Lawrence has been challenged perhaps more than any other young quarterback in recent history and I believe we're nearing the reward of this. Having talked to a close friend and Chiefs fan at the game, one of the biggest things we noticed was the complete difference in the accuracy required to complete passes. Patrick Mahomes was very rarely forced to throw into a tight window and often found reliable targets wide open due to massive lapses in coverage. On the other hand, Jaguars fans can recall the tough throws Lawrence was forced to make while under additional pressure to keep the Jaguars in the game. In spite of being sacked more, playing through crucial situations, and having tighter throw windows I think you can say that Lawrence played just as good if not better in that contest. That isn't at all to say that Lawrence is the superior quarterback in 2022, but he also didn't turn over the ball.

I expect Lawrence to play very efficient football throughout the remainder of the season, but I also want to see a game where he breaks out in volume. Trevor has never had more than 3 touchdowns or 332 yards passing in a game. It would be a fantastic treat for the Duval faithful to see him break these personal records and truly take over. Oh, and please do it against the Titans in Nashville. Although I'm not expecting the playoffs this year, this team will take it one game at a time and maybe, just maybe, we'll still have a shot going into January.

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