Jaguars 31, Saints 24: 5 Observations on Thursday Night Football Win

What did we see in the Jaguars' big win over the Saints in Week 7?

The Jacksonville Jaguars found a way to win on a short week in Week 7, knocking off the New Orleans Saints 31-24 to improve to 5-2. 

For all of the question marks facing the Jaguars entering Thursday, they just figured it out. They made their adjustments and they won a game that, for a few reasons, they probably deserved to lose. They couldn't have done that even 12 months ago.

“Number one, the biggest stat that matters to me is the scoreboard, right? The fact that we won the game," Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said after the win. "Now with that being said, I mentioned to the team that we had some guys who were banged up going into this game. Each man had to step in that gap. Everybody had to lift each other up. I credit our offensive line. Other than the scrambles where Trevor got tackled, I think he stayed pretty clean in the pocket for the whole day. His performance, gutting it out like he did, Brandon Scherff gutting it out like he did, so many guys on a short week battling injury. 

"To sacrifice that for the football team says a lot about the character of these guys. I am so proud of them for doing that. Trevor’s obviously one of those guys. Kind of everything else goes away – the fact that they gutted it out and made the plays down the stretch that we needed to, bust a route in the end zone on fourth down. Jamal’s punt return, did a great job of anticipating that. The fake punt. Christian and his touchdown in the end. There were a lot of individual efforts that were good to see. Just a lot of credit to those guys in the locker room.”

But what overall did we see in the win and what do we think it means moving forward? We break it down below.

Josh Allen has become the game-wrecker the Jaguars' defense has always needed 

Josh Allen recorded 10 pressures and three quarterback hits last night and it still feels like he was just an inch or a second here and there away from doing even more. Allen has clearly had the best start to a season in his career in 2023, but the last two weeks have been especially dominant. It has been arguably the best two week stretch of his career, even if he has just one of his seven sacks in that span -- and Thursday showed why. 

On a night where no other Jaguars' outside linebacker or defensive lineman had a pass-rush win rate higher than 9.1%, Josh Allen's 36.8% win-rate and pure dominance of Saints' left tackle Andrus Peat was needed more than ever. Allen applied pressure to Carr and nearly got home with a game-changing play a number of times, especially late in the game. He looked like the most unblockable player on the field and like a player who deserved the attention from an offense that the Nick Bosa and Myles Garrett-level pass-rushers get. Allen has more than arrived. He is reach star status, and it is happening at the perfect time.

Montaric Brown's big moment is a win for him, the staff and front office 

One of the top performances on Thursday night came from an unlikely candidate: second-year cornerback Montaric Brown, who came up big on two separate occasions to ensure the Jaguars kept their lead. Brown had a few gaffes here and there, which on Friday were noted by Pederson as moments of inexperience, but he also came up with two of the biggest plays of the game. '

Brown allowed a touchdown pass on a fade-type route to Michael Thomas in the second-half, but he also deflected an early Thomas end-zone target to force a Saints field goal in the first half. Then came fourth down, with Brown having a terrific one-on-one rep against Chris Olave. Brown felt a fade route coming and played it perfectly, giving Olave no room around the edge and then finding the ball in the air. 

“I thought he did some good things. He’s a young player, a second-year player for us. We were missing Tyson Campbell, so it’s next man up, and Buster’s the next man," Pederson said on Thursdya. "He’s worked hard to put himself in this position. He works hard in practice. It’s not always going to be perfect or pretty or all of that, but you know what? He made plays when he needed to, and that’s the most important thing. Really proud of the way he played today.”

With Brown stepping up the way he did, the hope is that the boost of confidence can help him continue on an upward trajectory. If he can, then that is a big win for a seventh-round pick who has been a career backup to this point. Hitting on those types of picks is how good teams build depth. 

The Calvin Ridley conundrum 

There have been endless questions over the last 16 or so hours about Calvin Ridley and his role in the offense, but it has been a clear trend this season that Ridley is simply going to be more effective against certain defenses and in certain game plans than others. Ridley was never going to be a big focus against a press-heavy team like the Saints -- just look at games against the Chiefs and Falcons to know that much. And in games where Lawrence is playing point guard and simply getting the ball out of his hands as quick as possible, Ridley will likely lose targets to players like Evan Engram and Christian Kirk.

"It was one of those games where we see Calvin as more of a deep threat. He is good in the short-to-intermediate areas as well. Last night, they rolled some coverage his way so they clouded some coverage, they inverted some coverage his way," Pederson said.

"They did a nice job of neutralizing Calvin. We still have to try to get him involved and get him more opportunities to catch the football. You got to credit the defense sometimes too, they know when you have a weapon on offense and if they can neutralize it, advantage them. Credit to the Saints for doing that. Calvin is in a really good place, he’s a big part of the offense obviously. We’re going to continue to find ways to get him the ball.”

The Jaguars had the expected offense for a hobbled Trevor Lawrence 

The entire expected offense for the Jaguars this week was for them to let Lawrence get rid of the ball quickly, limiting the chances the Saints had at hitting him in the pocket. The Jaguars did just that, with Lawrence's 2.2-second time to throw being the quickest of his entire career so far. The Jaguars had the game-plan to protect Lawrence perfectly in place, and the Jaguars executed it well. 

On the flip-side, one does have to wonder if the Jaguars are going to finally let Lawrence let it rip downfield once he is healthy. Or do they see efficient outings from the small-ball offense, which lives on yards after catch opportunities, as the best way to move the ball behind their current offensive line? That is a question we will have answered soon enough.

The second-half offensive lulls have become a crippling factor

For the second week in a row, the Jaguars' more or less had two different offenses. They had three scoring drives in the first-half, averaging 6.8 yards per play and totaling 226 total yards as they picked apart the Saints' defense through the air. But after a frankly effortless first-half, the Jaguars' second-half offense simply bogged down and couldn't get back into gear.

Take away Christian Kirk's 44-yard touchdown and the Jaguars' three kneel-downs, and the Jaguars ran 19 plays for 64 yards in the second-half -- just a 3.36 yard per play average. Pederson said after the game that it was due to strong defense more than anything that limited them, but the Jaguars need to figure out some kind of way to play an entire game on offense. Their inability to play with a lead has showed up big in the last two weeks.

“I don’t know if it’s frustration, it’s just something that we’ve got to continue to work through. I think it goes back to John’s question of learning how to continue to win. You just can’t have those let downs and lulls in football games," Pederson said on Friday. 

"You give credit to your opponents too, they continue to play and they’ve been coached to play for sixty minutes as well. This is why I use phrases like everything matters, because every play matters in a football game. We’ve got to continue to work on that, we’ve got to continue as coaches to look at those lulls and see if there’s something we can do different schematically. Then, it’s the players, the ultimate focus and ultimate concentration for the entire game, that’s a tough thing to do especially when you’re in that environment on a short week. The fatigue begins to set in the second half of the football game then the first thing to go is your mind. All things that we’re learning as a team together and we continue to work on them.”