The Jacksonville Jaguars fell to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday by a final score of 34-17. The seventeen point loss may seem like a blowout, but the game was truly a tale of two halves. Jacksonville jumped out to an early 17-0 lead in the 1st half. Eagles QB Nick Foles committed three turnovers, and the Jaguars turned those turnovers into fourteen points. A quiet turning point in the game may have come late in the 2nd quarter, however. The Eagles special teams blocked a potential Jaguars field goal and Jacksonville never truly threatened to score again. Chip Kelly rallied his team, and Darren Sproles, Jeremy Maclin, and Foles caught fire in the 2nd half. After the dust settled, it was a 34-17 final. Here I take a look at “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” from yesterday’s game.
The Good
As I correctly predicted last Friday, Jacksonville rookie WR Allen Hurns had a breakout performance. He finished the game with 4 catches for 110 yards and 2 TDs. QB Chad Henne hit Hurns on a few deep play-action passes, and Hurns looked like a potential stud in the 1st half. The Jacksonville defense did a great job against the Eagles fast-paced offense in the 1st half, as well. They had five sacks (!!!!), one interception, and two fumble recoveries. Most importantly, though, the defense kept Pro Bowl running back LeSean McCoy from breaking loose. McCoy was held to only 38 yards rushing in the 1st half. Finally, punter Bryan Anger averaged 52.7 yards per punt on his three 1st half attempts. This may not sound glamorous, but his punting ability will be very benefical to the Jaguars this season if he is able to keep up this impressive average.
The Bad
Unfortunately, all of the good plays for the Jacksonville Jaguars seemed to occur in the 1st half. The defense gave up 27 points in the 2nd half and looked completely lost on some plays. Jeremy Maclin caught a 68 yard TD pass in the 4th quarter, and I believe the closest Jaguar defender was still in Jacksonville (Note: a quick check with Google Maps shows the closest defender was indeed 842 miles away on the Maclin TD catch). I believe part of this defensive collaspe was due to starting safety Johnathan Cyprien leaving the game in the 1st half with an apparent head injury. He is the leader of the secondary, and it was his replacement who failed to cover Maclin on the long TD catch mentioned above. Offensively, the running game for the Jaguars was almost non-existent against the Eagles. The team managed only 64 yards rushing and got stuffed on a few 3rd down plays.
The Ugly
The Jacksonville offense in the 2nd half was just poor. There is no other way to describe it; it was simply poor. The Jags punted five times in the 2nd half and failed on a 4th and 1 attempt before the game officially got out of reach. Henne seemed to have a hard time controlling the huddle and had to burn a timeout on two seperate occasions trying to save the team from being flagged for a delay of game penalty. Receivers Marqise Lee and Allen Hurns both dropped passes on third down attempts, too. Hurns had two big drops and failed to make any impact in the 2nd half.
I predicted a 37-21 Eagles victory last Friday, and that almost turned out to be the score. However, I did not foresee the momentum swings that this game featured. The Jaguars played one really great half of football and one simply god-awful half of football. Head coach Gus Bradley should be working on getting his team to play more consistent this week during practice. There were a few bright spots, though. The defense looked fast and played hard in the first half. Hurns stepped up and made some big plays in the passing game, too. The Jaguars should learn from this game, and I believe that they will bounce back next week against the Washington Redskins. Look for my article previewing that matchup later in the week.
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