The Jacksonville Jaguars end the Philip Rivers experiment on way to earning yet another road win.
The Jacksonville Jaguars just keep winning.
Sunday’s 23-17 win over the Indianapolis Colts was in no one’s book a pretty or convincing win, but a win nonetheless that moved Jacksonville to 12-4 this season and completed the sweep over the Colts.
Trevor Lawrence rushed in two scores and the defense grabbed two picks – get some Al’s. The win was never in question as the Jags rattled off their seventh consecutive victory to maintain their position atop the AFC South and in striking distance for the AFC’s top overall seed.
There was plenty to like about the victory and also a few things that might have raised concerns, but nothing from Sunday should derail what the Jags have built to this point. Just one more regular season game now stands in the way of this team and their quest for the Super Bowl.
WINNERS
Continuing to Win
It isn’t easy to win in the NFL. Sometimes your day at the office is far tougher than it normally is. The Jags saw that Sunday.
Yes, Philip Rivers is the quarterback for the Colts and the Colts are not an extremely healthy team currently. But they are still a decent enough team with plenty of good players. The Jags won a tough road game which should be considered a huge overall victory outside of the scoring being within six points.
Jacksonville has won four road games in a row during their winning streak. That is the type of thing you can carry with you into the playoffs. This squad knows they will have their backs against the wall a lot of times while on the road, but instead of running from that, has embraced it. And it works.
We single out individual players or coaches a lot because it’s easier to pinpoint someone having a 100-yard day or two touchdowns than it is to applaud the franchise as a whole. The Jaguars are doing a great job winning football games as a whole though. Sometimes they are just uglier than usual.
Buster Brown
The somewhat sudden newsdrop of Jourdan Lewis going down for the year meant it was going to be time for the Jaguars’ corners to really step up.
As has been the calling card for his entire tenure in Jacksonville, Montaric “Buster” Brown has been the replacement corner when the usual starter gets hurt. He has done that for much of this season and helped keep the secondary afloat Sunday in Lewis’ absence. He got targeted a good bit, but held his own overall.
Brown had two pass breakups which were really just two dropped picks he could have had. He was credited with a third during the game, but he didn’t actually touch a ball that was dropped. Brown also finished second on the year in total tackles with six.
By game’s end, Brown was the highest rated Jaguar according to PFF with a noisy 88.2 grade.
Something that also might fly under the radar was a likely touchdown-saving tackle on special teams after a 55-yard kickoff return.
Brown and counterpart Jarrian Jones played well on Sunday. Michael Pittman Jr. had just two catches and tight end Tyler Warren led the Colts in receiving. It was a good day in the office for Brown and the boys.
Parker Washington
Water was carried and wood was chopped yet again for Parker Washington.
For the first time this season, Washington rattled off two consecutive 100-yard games for the Jags after his eight catch, 115 yard day against the Colts.
Washington is WR1 in Jacksonville as the dude is consistently making the extra effort, taking big hits and just all around performing acrobatic feats on the field all the time. He has steadily improved each and every game this season and clearly has the trust of Lawrence plus the coaches. Washington may run around and reverse field a lot, but nine times out of 10 it actually works.
At 760 yards so far this year, Washington could get close to his first ever 1,000 yard receiving season if the Jags continue to push deeper into the playoffs.
Back to those PFF numbers, Washington was the fourth highest rated Jag with a 75.6 grade. Washington is making the big plays which in turn has made this offense a whole lot better. It looks to be extremely tough to guard the Jags with the weapons they have at receiver right now.
LOSERS
Play Calling
Yes, it’s tough to win in the NFL. Sometimes that toughness is because of yourself.
I don’t think anyone would say that Sunday’s game was Liam Coen’s best as a playcaller or coach. Some of the play calling seemed either disjointed or forced. A lot of the times the Jags on offense just never seemed smooth.
The big messed up play people will point to was the hook and ladder – made 10 times worse by the fact it was executed to perfection later in the day during primetime games. That specific play was there, but Travis Etienne couldn’t get to his spot fast enough and the timing might have just been overall disrupted beyond repair.
Some of the late runs seemed a little whacky at times, but if the playcalling is one of the worst aspects of your game in a win, then you have good issues.
Maybe Coen and Grant Udinski just wanted some different plays on tape to keep teams honest before the playoffs. Maybe they were testing stuff out knowing they were never truly in danger.
Either way, some of that play calling made the win feel a little puke-enducing throughout the day.
The Philip Rivers Experiment
So that went about the way everyone thought it would, right?
The Colts tried to bring back the ghost of Philip Rivers and it bombed like we all knew it would. That was a weird choice. An understandable choice I suppose, but a weird one all the same. Did you also know that Rivers has lots of children though? Did you know he is a high school football coach? How about that he is 45? Have you seen his family in their box recently?
Category: General Sports
