Where is the Jaguars Offense on Opening Drives?

The Jacksonville Jaguars have been abysmal on opening drives this season. What will it take to fix it?

Sep 23, 2024; Orchard Park, New York, USA; Jacksonville Jaguars running back Travis Etienne Jr. (1) runs during the second half against the Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images / Gregory Fisher-Imagn Images

The Jacksonville Jaguars have struggled offensively. The Jaguars' last 10 quarters of football in particular have been a struggle.

Most consistent this season is the Jaguars' struggle to open games. Even their best offensive effort, the opening half against the Miami Dolphins in Week 1, began with a struggle. The Jaguars' first drive was a three-and-out of -14 yards.

They would, of course, go on to score 17 points in that half. But it was the first instance of the poor opening drives to come. In Week 2 against the Cleveland Browns, the Jaguars' first drive was five plays for 15 yards and another punt. On Monday against the Buffalo Bills, three plays for one yard.

Starting the game poorly is far from the lone reason as to why the Jaguars are 0-3. But it lends insight to what has been the inability to attain momentum early on. Offensive coordinator Press Taylor told reporters this week that the key will be "taking advantage of every situation."

"I think every situation is very different as well. In Miami, I think we kind of busted an operation in terms of a movement play on the first play of the game, put us in second-and-16 or something to start the game," Taylor said. "The other night, I think on the second-down, we had a drop that puts a third-and-manageable and you end up in the third-down. Every situation is very different. I don't know if I'd necessarily say it's one thing. If we were able to do that and put our finger on it, we would certainly solve that right away, but we look at each play as its own entity and try to figure out what went wrong or right on that play and how do we repeat that or correct it as we move forward."

For quarterback Trevor Lawrence, it is about avoiding three-and-out and starting fast.

"There's a lot of things that we're looking at to fix that and get on track this week," Lawrence said.
"That's our job as an offense to do that early in games, and we’ve got to stay on the field to let our defense settle in, too. When you go three-and-out, especially when you don't get the ball first, and you go three-and-out, the defense was just on the field."

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