Sluggish start and finish dooms the Jaguars offense, leads to 13-7 loss to the New Orleans Saints
The Jacksonville Jaguars have been a second half team all year. Fournette runs faster, Minshew is magic and the fans are cheering. But this Sunday's 13-7 loss against the New Orleans Saints was different.
The second half dragged on and Minshew looked like a rookie - a sixth round rookie. The communication seemed off all game and the dagger was firmly put in the Jaguars chest with 11:25 to go in the game.
Saints quarterback Teddy Bridgewater found Jared Cook in the endzone to take a 13-6 lead with 11:25 to go, and would ultimately be the final score of the game with the Saints coming out on top after a sluggish offensive game from both sides.
The storyline leading into this game was could the Jaguars defense help the Jaguars offense? That script was immediately flipped.
Minshew, on the day the organization gave out 35,000 mustaches in his honor had his worst game of his career thus far. He went 14-for-29 for 163 yards and an interception. That interception was his first as the starting quarterback for the Jaguars, and it killed any momentum as the second half began.
There wasn’t much to speak about in the run game either for the Jaguars. Leonard Fournette had 20 carries for 72 yards and only averaged 3.6 yards per carry. However, his impact was still felt in the passing game with six catches for 46 yards which is seven yard average. He ended the day with 118 all purpose yards.
Fournette’s drive and consistency was a positive takeaway in this gamel however. He was the only player on offense that was moving with purpose. DJ Chark was the intended target on the Minshew interception, a play where it looked like Chark and Minshew were not on the same page. Chark only had three catches for 43 yards, while Dede Westbrook led the team with three receptions for 53 yards.
Jawaan Taylor had a big task this week dealing with Cameron Jordan. He failed to rise to the occasion. Jordan had two sacks on Minshew along with four tackles. Overall, the offensive line did a tad better than last week, but Minshew continued his trend of trying to do a bit too much and fumbled again this week.
Defensively, the Jaguars performed well against Alvin Kamra - Kamara was limited to 11 carries for 33 yards. Latavius Murray led the saints in rushing he had eight carries for 44 yards.
Everyone on this defensive line showed out for the Jags on Sunday, an improvement from the last two weeks. Josh Allen recorded his fourth sack of the season and was great to see depth guys step up and make plays like Dawuanne Smoot.
Smoot had no sacks in his career heading into this season, Sunday he recorded his third of the season. Taven Bryan also continues to improve, as hee blew up a Kamara run in the third quarter and drew a holding call.
The linebackers for the Jags came out slow, but continued to get better as the game went on. Najee Goode was fun to watch in this game - he was third on the team in tackles with six and also recorded a sack. Myles Jack was second in tackles with eight.
Who led the Jags in tackles? Cornerback Tre Herndon. Bridgewater seemed to have a simple game plan coming into this game - throw wherever Herndon is. He showed some flashes in the game of his potential, but other times he struggled.
AJ Bouye and DJ Hayden both had solid games. Hayden has gotten better every week, and that’s fun to see. This secondary obviously missed superstar cornerback Jalen Ramsey, whp didn’t play for the third straight week due to a back injury.
Hayden has been making the most out of his opportunities on the field as announcer Trent Greene alluded too during the broadcast. He’s had a sack and 14 tackles on the season. He’s also been a vital part of the Jaguars run defense.
The Jags fall to 2-4 on the season following this loss - the same day Houston Texans defeated the Kansas City Chiefs 31-24. That makes it the second week in a row the Chiefs fell to an AFC South opponent.
Jacksonville is two games out of the division lead and these last two weeks have been tough losses. The Jaguars just can’t seem to put together a full game on the offense and the defense. Which makes it hard for a team to win games. The Jags play the Bengals and Jets in its next two games, which seem like winnable games for the Jaguars. The battle to go .500 starts next week against the Bengals.
