Jaguars vs. Titans: 5 observations
The Jacksonville Jaguars (1-2) entered a must win game on Thursday Night Football against the Tennessee Titans (1-2) and ended up pulling off a 20-7 victory that really wasn't as close as the 13-point indicates.
The win was huge for a number of reasons: From keeping the team away from a doomsday 0-3 scenario, to a second straight strong defensive effort against a division rival, to finally slaying a Titans team that the Jaguars hadn't beat since Christmas Eve of 2016. It was simply a win the players, coaches, front office and fans needed.
So after digesting what went down on Thursday, what takeaways can we have?
1. The team showed zero signs of a Jalen Ramsey trade hangover.
Ever since reports came out on Monday night that Jaguars star cornerback Jalen Ramsey had requested a trade out of Jacksonville, there was an abundance of outside noise around the team. Ramsey and the coaching staff said there would be no distractions, but the reality is there is no way to avoid the largest storyline in the NFL hanging over the team.
But on Thursday, the team played with its hair on fire on both sides of the ball. Ramsey made a few nice tackles but ultimately had an average evening in coverage, but the rest of the defense completely swarmed for the entire game. The offense started hot, and the special teams made a few game changing plays. From top to bottom, the Jaguars tuned out the noise.
2. Sacksonville made the triumphant return it had been longing for
While the Jaguars defense was solid in 2018, it was not the elite defense that terrorized quarterbacks in 2017 with 55 sacks. The sack total dropped to 37 last season, but against the Titans the pass rush exploded for nine sacks. Calais Campbell and Josh Allen combined for five of those sacks, Yannick Ngakoue was a constant disruptive force and other pass rushers like Taven Bryan and Dawuane Smooth recording sacks as well.
Over the last two games, the Jaguars have 12 sacks, which is almost a third of their total from 2018. Of course, the Texans and Titans offensive lines aren't world beaters, but the Jaguars played those same units last season and didn't produce the same results. On Thursday, the Jaguars pressured Marcus Mariota 27 times in 53 dropbacks according to Pro Football Focus, meaning he had a defender in his face on more than half of his dropbacks.
Simply put, the defense returned to its dominant pass rushing form over the last two games.
3. Gardner Minshew didn't play like a rookie under the primetime lights
For the third straight game, rookie quarterback Gardner Minshew has thrown for at least 200 passing yards, a touchdown and finished with a passer rating of 95.0. Against the Titans, Minshew played totally mistake free and if it were not for two to three bad drops by his teammates, his numbers would have looked even better.
When Nick Foles went down with a broken clavicle after only two drives in week 1, many thought the Jaguars' season was lost because of the inexperienced and unproven sixth-round pick Minshew. But against the Titans, Minshew took his game to another level with three completions of 20 yards or more, two touchdowns and several smart plays that kept the offense from nosediving.
4. A.J. Bouye had his bounce back game
After having an up and down 2018 and a poor performance against the Kansas City Chiefs in week 1, many thought Bouye may have lost a few steps and was no longer the lockdown corner that he was in 2017. But on Thursday, Bouye looked stellar in coverage all night long against a very talented receiver in A.J. Brown.
Bouye finished with two pass breakups against Brown on crucial third down plays to stall Titans drives and even when he wasn't targeted, he was keeping Brown from getting open downfield. With Jalen Ramsey's time in Jacksonville likely coming to a close soon, Bouye continuing with more strong performances could be crucial.
5. The offensive line had a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde evening
The offensive line did a fantastic job in keeping Gardner Minshew clean on Thursday, shutting the Titans pass rushers out and allowing zero sacks. Leonard Fournette also had a few huge blitz pickups, something he struggled with as a rookie in 2017. As a pass blocking group, they had a huge night.
But the running game was a totally different story. If it were not for Fournette's 69-yard run in the fourth quarter, he likely would have had negative rushing yards on the night. Some of that is because Fournette wasn't breaking tackles, but several offensive lineman such as Andrew Norwell and Cedric Ogbuehi struggled mightily as run blockers all night.
If the Jaguars want to have a truly balanced offense moving forward, they will need to figure out how to jump start their running game, and they need to figure it out quickly.
