Jaguars' Offense Knows Faster Starts Will Be Key in 2020
2020 was by all definitions a poor offensive year for the Jacksonville Jaguars. They finished 26th in points, scoring just 18.8 points per game, and they were among the worst red zone offenses in the league. While the Jaguars had flashes of explosive play on offense, the team typically found itself trailing at the half as a result of a stagnant offensive unit.
If the Jaguars are going to improve upon last year's 6-10 record, improving the offense may be the most critical piece to the puzzle. And one of the biggest steps toward accomplishing that goal will be to make sure the Jaguars' offense isn't limping out of the gate week in and week out.
Last year, the Jaguars scored just 7.4 points per each first half, which was the second-worst mark in the NFL and only 0.1 points ahead of the last place Chicago Bears. By comparison, eventual Super Bowl champions Kansas City Chiefs scored 17.2 points per first half.
“Yeah, one of the biggest things in this league, everything’s so close. I think you’ve got to get it to the fourth quarter, and if you get it to the fourth quarter where you are in striking distance, then I think you have a chance to win every game," Jaguars quarterback Gardner Minshew II said on Thursday.
"More than anything, we’ve got to give ourselves more chances than we did last year and that’s going to include jumping out earlier.”
If anyone would know about the challenges of slow starts in the 2019 season, it is Minshew. Two of his signature wins (Week 5 vs. Denver and Week 15 vs. Oakland Raiders) came after the Jaguars trailed by double-digits at halftime. Vs. Denver, Jacksonville entered halftime losing 17-6, while they were trailing the Raiders 16-3 at the halfway mark.
Minshew and the Jaguars' offense was able to roar back and find themselves on the winning side in these two instances, but there were countless other games in which the Jaguars struggled to make it a close game at halftime and it ended up eventually costing them the win.
There are all kinds of theories on why a fast start makes an offense, and overall a team, better in the second half. In opens up the playbook more and gives players a boost on the sidelines and on the field. As Minshew noted, games in the NFL are so closely contested that they can change on a dime, but there were too many instances last year of the Jaguars not giving themselves a chance to use the full playbook in the second half of games.
First-year offensive coordinator Jay Gruden knows this will be one of the key areas of Jacksonville's offense that he will be tasked with improving. By ensuring the Jaguars aren't battling uphill all game, Gruden is hoping Minshew will only be aided in his season as the starter.
“It’s really hard, especially for a young quarterback. When you’re in a known passing situation in the second half, there are not a lot of veteran quarterbacks that are very good," Gruden said this week. "There are obviously the superstars, and they are the superstars. If you have a young quarterback, then you have to play close or with a lead to help him out where he could change the launch pad, where it’s not a five-step drop every time out of the gun, and he’s trying to read the defenses and they’re trying to pick up every blitz known to man and every coverage and they’re disguising it, it’s really hard."
If the Jaguars are able to start off on a better foot on Sunday's in 2019, the hope is they won't put the weight of the team on Minshew's shoulders each second half. Running back Leonard Fournette excels at grinding down defenses as the game goes along, and by keeping the score close, the Jaguars will be able to put both him and Minshew in the best situations possible.
"But when you throw in the running game, and the play action, and the bootlegs, and the quick game later in the games, I mean it can make a quarterback much more effective, obviously," Gruden said. "So, it’s going to be very important for us to stay close, get out to fast starts, so we can utilize our entire playbook, not just a portion of it when you’re behind.”
