Sam: Kouvaris: Can Jaguars do it again?

Kouvaris says Dolphins are similar opponent to Browns

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – With the benefit of playing their second straight home game, the Jaguars will try to win their second game of the year against the Dolphins.

Miami has three victories this year, but hasn't won back-to-back games this season. They opened with a victory over the Patriots then lost to the Bills in Buffalo. They've lost to the Chiefs and Packers at home but won road games at Oakland and impressively last week at Chicago.

Meanwhile, the Jaguars won their first game of the year last week against Cleveland.

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In Miami, the Jaguars will find a similar opponent to the Browns: A team with a young quarterback, a solid running game and beatable.

Coming off their win over the Browns, how did the Jaguars react? According to their head coach, they reacted exactly as he had hoped.

Gus Bradley says the Jaguars came to work on Wednesday excited to be back on the field but without any entitlement as a winning team.

"I liked the energy they brought. You could tell they were ready to get to work. And that's what we were looking for."

The Jaguars win last week came at a high price, losing Paul Posluszny and Andre Branch with Alan Ball and Dwayne Gratz being added to the injury list this week.

"Poz is a big loss," Bradley said Thursday while taping his weekly television show. "He's played at a high level for us and makes the defensive calls. But we have a ‘next man up' mentality and we'll expect JT (Thomas) to step in their and do the job."

Thomas will move to the middle linebacker position where he's played before. Dekota Watson will slide into Thomas' spot on the outside. But with potentially four starters from last week not available against the Dolphins, it'll be a different task for the Jaguars defense this week.

That's how they beat the Browns, with defense. They shut Cleveland's running game down and forced them to rely on Brian Hoyer to move the football. They'll try and do the same thing today: They'll concentrate on shutting the Dolphins rushing attack down, and force Ryan Tannehill to try and move the ball through the air. Tannehill is a bit more mobile than Hoyer and has completed more than 72% of his passes in the past three games.

The Jaguars will need a better performance from Blake Bortles to win today. Bortles three interceptions last week kept the Jaguars from taking control of the game against Cleveland and he knows it.

When asked how he thought he played against the Browns Blake was quick with his assessment: "Bad." The Dolphins defense is susceptible to giving up big chunks of yardage and the Jaguars will need to take advantage of that, control the clock and score some points.

Last week's win leaned on the defense and the running game with Denard Robinson scoring his first TD and accounting for more than 100 of the 185 yards rushing the Jaguars gained against the Browns.

If they can get that kind of performance on the ground this week and Bortles doesn't turn the ball over, they'll have a good shot this week. But don't expect the Dolphins to have the limited success on offense the Jaguars forced the Browns into last week.

This game could turn into a bit of a shootout that could be exciting to watch.