We weren’t ready to buy all the way in on Jacksonville after two weeks. Apparently, they had something to say about that.
Sports UNIllustrated had a simple question for the Jacksonville Jaguars after Week 2:
Can we see a little more first?
Jacksonville was sitting in that awkward space where there was enough to get our attention, but not quite enough to convince us. They opened the season with a 34–10 win over Cleveland, then went to Denver and lost 20–13.
So when we looked at the league after Week 2, Jacksonville wasn’t getting thrown away.
But they weren’t getting a full stamp of approval either.
We needed to see more.
Well.
35–6.
Message received.
Jacksonville Didn’t Just Beat New England
The Jaguars didn’t spend Sunday squeaking past the Patriots and asking us to squint really hard to find the positives.
They handled them.
Jacksonville beat New England 35–6 and moved to 2–1, handing the defending AFC champions a loss that was pretty much decided before the fourth quarter got started. Jacksonville Jaguars
Trevor Lawrence finished 19-of-29 for 182 yards and three touchdowns. Jacksonville ran for 137 yards and two more scores, converted eight of 12 third downs and went a perfect five-for-five scoring touchdowns inside the Patriots’ 20. Jacksonville Jaguars
That’s not one player having a ridiculous afternoon and dragging everybody else across the finish line.
That’s a football team doing its job.
And Then There Was the Defense
New England didn’t score a touchdown.
Not one.
Jacksonville forced three turnovers from Drake Maye—two interceptions and a lost fumble—and sacked him three times. Maye finished 14-of-25 for 199 yards with no touchdowns. Jacksonville Jaguars
One of those interceptions belonged to Travis Hunter, who picked Maye off in the end zone late in the second quarter for the first interception of his NFL career. Instead of New England potentially cutting into Jacksonville’s lead before halftime, the Jaguars went into the locker room up 14–3. Jacksonville Jaguars
Then Jacksonville came back out and turned the third quarter into a problem.
A Lawrence touchdown pass to Parker Washington made it 21–3. On New England’s very next offensive play, Jarrian Jones intercepted Maye and returned it 32 yards. Chris Rodriguez scored five yards later.
Those two Jacksonville touchdowns came 18 seconds apart.
28–3.
Yeah. That’ll do it. 😂 Jacksonville Jaguars
So… Did They Show Us Enough?
For one week?
Hell yes.
That doesn’t mean we’re crowning Jacksonville anything in September. Three games is still three games, and there is a whole lot of football left.
But this was exactly the kind of performance we were waiting to see.
Jacksonville lost a game in Denver in Week 2 and came home with the defending AFC champions standing across from them. They could’ve given us another close game, another “there were some good things” performance, another reason to keep them sitting in the maybe pile.
Instead, they beat New England by 29 points.
And there’s another number worth watching: Jacksonville has now won 10 of its last 11 regular-season games and six straight regular-season games at home. Jacksonville Jaguars
So, Jaguars…
We asked you to show us more.
You did.
Now the question changes.
Can you keep doing it?
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