JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – We are now moving on ahead into Week 7 of the NFL season and the Jaguars have a quick turnaround for Thursday night football.
Jacksonville will travel to New Orleans to take on the Saints in Caesars Superdome for a primetime matchup.
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The Jaguars are 4-2 and leading the AFC South after beating the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday 37-20.
We’ll probably have to wait until gameday to learn the injury status of Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who sustained a knee injury in last week’s game and is day to day, according to head coach Doug Pederson
The Saints have the upper hand in the regular season series against the Jaguars including winning the last four matchups and holding a 5-2 overall lead. New Orleans won the first-ever meeting between the two clubs (17-13 in 1996) at the Superdome before dropping the next two contests.
The Saints are .500 at 3-3 this season after a loss last week to the Texans (20-13) at NRG Stadium in Houston.
New Orleans is led by head coach Dennis Allen, who served as the team’s defensive coordinator since 2015 and was promoted to head coach on Feb. 8, 2022.
The Saints also have a different quarterback under center this season. Back in March, Former Raiders quarterback Derek Carr agreed to a four-year contract with the Saints.
Carr has played pretty well for the Saints so far this season. He threw for a season-high 353 yards and a touchdown in the loss last week to Houston.
Carr is questionable for the Saints. He was listed as limited on practice on Monday, citing a chest issue and a right shoulder injury that he has also been dealing with for recent weeks.
Carr was very animated when speaking to reporters after the game about the loss and the offensive performance.
“I had to calm down a little bit. We as an offense had too many details... you know I’m not going to tell you what happened. Yes, we know. Yes, we know what it was and all those things. I won’t say it,” Carr said. “Those little details, that if we do those things right, you’re looking like... oh my gosh... we would have 28 points. I just want to win, man. The yards are awesome, great thanks. I couldn’t care less. I just want to win.”
The Saints offense is looking to turn some things around for this game on a short week. The team struggled to put points on the board last week, settling for field goals and turning the ball over on downs. The team went 0 for 3 in the red zone against Houston.
Both Allen and Carr were upset with the miscommunication between the quarterback and his receivers in Houston, and that is something the team will need to work on.
“I wish I had the answer because if I did, we’d have it fixed,” Allen said. “It’s an area that has to get better. At the end of the day, that ends up costing you games. I thought we moved the ball efficiently, but then we have negative plays, and it’s hard to overcome that. There’s certainly a lot of things that we’ve got to clean up.”
Carr says until the team gets on the same page, there will be “sucky feelings.”
Carr also says that the team definitely has a few things it needs to work on before Jacksonville comes into town.
“If it takes extra time studying, if it takes extra time with your coach, whatever it takes to make sure that when those situations come up, we can just do the right things.” Carr said. “We have the talent to do the right things, but we have to do the right things, even if the look may change.”
Besides all that, Carr is glad that the team has the quick turnaround this week.
“I think on a short week it’s exciting, because you don’t have any time to dwell on anything else except football,” Carr said. “You don’t have time to make any calls or do anything else besides diving into the plays. In a compressed week, sometimes it’s a blessing that you don’t get time to dwell and harp over things. You just have to turn around and get ready to go play the next one. Knowing the guys in this building, I think it will be a positive response.”
The issues in the red zone are really hurting the Saints offensively, and Allen says there needs to be improvement.
“I feel like we’ve been able to move the ball effectively at times this season and whether it be by a penalty, a negative yardage play, we don’t run a proper route, there’s something that happens that keeps us from scoring touchdowns down there,” Allen said. “That has to be cleaned up. That has to be better.”
Allen also talked on Monday about there being many different factors that go into better performance in the red zone.
“When you’re not scoring down there, there’s a lot of factors that go into that,” Allen said. “Can we call better play calls? We probably can. And yet, if we execute some of the plays that are called, we might see some better results.
Allen says the entire team has to “take ownership” of that.
On Monday, Allen also spoke about what the team has to do moving forward to get better.
“I think it boils down to our ability to be able to execute,” Allen said. “And by execution, I mean if we’re getting to a certain check or getting to a certain play, making sure everybody understands exactly what they’re all supposed to be doing so that we can go out and actually perform that job the proper way on the field. And that’s a combination of we’ve got to do a better job coaching it, and we’ve got to do a better job of playing it.”
Allen expressed that this is not just a player-only issue, but a group of different things.
“When we say execution, we’re not just saying, ‘players have to do better.’ That’s not at all what we’re saying,” Allen said. “We’ve got to do a better job of coaching it, because I think we have guys that want to do it right. If they’re not, we’ve got to look at is the volume too much? Are we asking too much of a particular player? Are we coaching it the right way? And if we feel like we’re doing all those things and we’re still not getting the execution that we need, maybe it needs to be a different person doing that job.”
One positive for the Saints on the offensive side of the ball is that the team just brought back five-time Pro Bowl running back Alvin Kamara. Kamara returned to the team back in Week 4 after serving a three-game suspension.
Kamara has 199 yards on 52 attempts and a touchdown since returning to the team.
New Orleans also has talent at wide receiver too with Chris Olave, Michael Thomas and Rashid Shaheed leading the way.
By far the biggest strength for the Saints is their defense, which is playing at a level near the top of the league once again.
It is led by veterans Cameron Jordan at defensive end, Demario Davis at linebacker and Marshon Lattimore at defensive back.
Last week, New Orleans gave up 17 first-half points to Houston before only allowing just a single field goal after halftime. And so far, the defense has only given up eight touchdowns this season.
Jordan says the way the team came out after halftime against Houston was perfect, and exactly how the team has to be moving forward.
“We need to come out with that second-half energy on defense,” Jordan said. “The way we took the second half, that’s how we need to start every game. And even in the first half, there’s just some things that we needed to clean up. There are three or four plays that you wish you could have back, that you can’t. We have to be able to affect this game early, and consistently. If it’s up to the defense, we have to be able to take over from jump.”
On Monday, Davis talked to the media about where the team feels like they are at and what they have to do each week to win.
“I think that’s the parity in this league, that week in and week out you’ve just got to be on your stuff. It doesn’t mean necessarily that we’re not on our stuff or not executing at a high level,” Davis said. Another team can out-execute you, and that’s what you want to work to prevent, and I think that’s the grit of the week, is to be at your best, not just to do it at a high level.”
A key issue the Saints are focusing on ahead of the Thursday night matchup with Jacksonville, is practicing on a short week and dealing with injuries.
“It’s going to be a lot of mental, a lot of walk-throughs, and a lot of time spent in recovery,” Allen said. “In the training room, doing all the different things that we have. We’ve invested a ton of money into a lot of recovery equipment, so our guys are going to have to do a really good job of taking care of their bodies this week.
Allen’s top priority will be getting his guys ready to go on Thursday against Jacksonville.
“The preparation this week will be more of a mental nature than it will be of a physical nature in terms of what we do on the field. I think that’s always the challenge on a Thursday night game, is trying to get them — after playing a tough game — trying to get a guy, get his body back ready to go.”