You couldn’t have drawn up a better start for the Jacksonville Jaguars in Sunday’s season opener against the Miami Dolphins.
Jacksonville’s young defense came up with four straight stops against Mike McDaniel’s juggernaut offense, including a pair on fourth down. That helped the offense stake its way to a 14-0 lead, highlighted by rookie Brian Thomas Jr. securing his first NFL touchdown catch.
But the Jaguars only managed a field goal the rest of the way, got crushed by a rare Travis Etienne lost fumble in the third quarter, and made the short trip home trying to stomach a 20-17 loss in a game they never trailed until time expired.
Vinnie Iyer of The Sporting News released his Week 2 NFL power rankings on Monday, and as a result of Sunday’s missed opportunity, dropped the Jaguars four spots, from No. 20 to No. 24. Here was Iyer’s reasoning:
The Jaguars had to love a more explosive offense with Gabe Davis and rookie Brian Thomas Jr. getting Trevor Lawrence in better field-stretching mode. They need their young defense to come together to be complementary enough to consistently finish the job.
The offense had its moments, but the Jaguars needed that one back-breaking score that never came. Instead, it was Miami that flipped the momentum with an 80-yard touchdown strike from Tua Tagovailoa to Tyreek Hill on the play immediately following Etienne’s fumble.
Jacksonville’s offense only ran 50 plays in the game, 15 less than the Dolphins. That severely limited the team’s scoring chances in a game where it had to have them.
Defensively, the Jaguars were forced to manage the loss of star cornerback Tyson Campbell, who exited with a hamstring injury. Another soft-tissue injury for the 24-year-old certainly blurs the immediate future of this young and mostly unproven defense, but the long touchdown allowed to Hill aside, holding Miami to 20 points in regulation constitutes a respectable performance.
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