JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jaguars aren’t hiding from it. They’re not happy with how their last game went.
“I think everybody’s responding. I’ve responded a certain way. The unit has responded a certain way. Nobody’s happy about it,” defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile said. “Everybody’s got a level of pissed off in here which is a good thing. That’s just me being honest.”
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That feeling goes well beyond just Campanile.
No one was enthused with how the Jaguars (1-1) finished with a whimper in a disappointing Week 2 loss to the Broncos. Jacksonville struggled to block consistently on the offensive line. The pass rush was nonexistent and didn’t sack Bo Nix. With the Patriots (1-1) headed to EverBank Stadium at 1 p.m. on Sunday for Jacksonville’s final home game until Nov. 1, it’s an opportunity to fix things for the home fans.
“It’s football. It’s how you respond. That’s what it’s all about. We all know that have played and if it’s not your first season, it’s the NFL and you’re going to play some good teams, you’re going to have some tough losses and you got to be able to respond the next week,” said quarterback Trevor Lawrence. “And that says everything you need to know about your team. I’m confident that we’re going to respond and that we’re going to be ready to go against New England. That’s what good teams do.”
Jacksonville was clicking in Week 1 in a 34-10 blowout of the Browns. It had its moments in the first half against Denver, including an end zone interception by Jourdan Lewis and forcing the Broncos to kick a field goal after getting down to the 1. The Patriots, who beat the Broncos in last year’s AFC championship game, haven’t been as crisp as they were last season, but they are still one of the best teams in the conference.
“We don’t have enough time to waste looking back. We have a darn good opponent that played in the Super Bowl last year, coming into town that we know they’re going to be very well coached, disciplined, darn good football team with a good quarterback,” head coach Liam Coen said. “I think our guys, talking to them after the game on the plane, when we got back, a lot of guys understood kind of what took place and the areas in which we need to improve on. It’s all of us in it together and that’s the best part of it is we have the opportunity now to respond.”
The Jaguars can’t play like they did in Denver and expect to navigate the upcoming stretch of games without issue. Jacksonville visits the Bengals in Week 4, travels to London in Week 5 to face the Eagles and then hosts the Texans in the London game in Week 6.
The key to improving starts in the trenches on both sides.
Rookie left guard Emmanuel Pregnon, making just his second career start, struggled against Denver. Then again, the whole offensive line had problems against the Broncos.
“That’s probably one of the things that I’d look back on and say, ‘Man, could I have put those guys in a better spot to be successful?’ Because we try to stay aggressive even in the protection game. We want to feel like we’re attacking defenses,” offensive coordinator Grant Udinski said of the protection issues.
“And there are certain elements of that where you try to design a protection to attack what the defense does from a rush standpoint: who are their premier rushers, what are their best rush packages, and what is their rush plan? And I think looking back at it, you see that they did an excellent job deploying that plan and their guys made plays in some of those early downs, earlier in the game.”
The defensive front wasn’t much better. Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker were neutralized against the Broncos. That lack of pressure afforded Nix more than enough time to pick apart Jacksonville’s secondary, which he did.
The cornerbacks are still learning how to play together. Travis Hunter, Buster Brown and Jarrian Jones were rotated heavily against Denver. Hunter played just seven games last year before a season-ending knee injury. Brown is a former seventh-round pick who signed a lucrative extension in the offseason. That group, on paper, should become better with more and more reps.
“Like I said last week, we feel like we have a bunch of good players there,” Campanile said about the cornerback rotation. “Guys that do a good job and work their tail off. We feel good about all those guys. Keeping them fresh and rotating them all has been the philosophy behind it.”
