JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It has been a long, long time since the Jaguars have been in the Monday night spotlight.
Not since 2011 has Jacksonville played in the NFL’s premier broadcast slot, and it’s been for good reason. The Jaguars finished 5-11 in 2011, and they were pummeled by the Chargers 38-14 in that Monday night game. Since then, the Jaguars have had nine seasons with losing records and filled with constant turmoil, not quite the most endearing traits the NFL schedule makers look for to put in primetime.
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But things are changing in Jacksonville. The Jaguars have turned things around quite nicely the last season and a half.
Now, the rest of the country gets a chance to see it.
The Jaguars (8-3) are sitting at the top of the AFC South with a two and a half game lead with Cincinnati headed to EverBank Stadium on Monday night. When that matchup was set, it was expected to be Trevor Lawrence and Joe Burrow facing off in a battle of two of the league’s rising stars at quarterback. Instead, Burrow is on injured reserve and backup Jake Browning is leading Cincinnati (5-6) against Lawrence and one of the league’s best defenses. Sure, that clash isn’t as prominent as it should have been, but no one in Jacksonville is apologizing for that.
Fans here have waited long and patiently for the Monday night honor, and it’s another opportunity to showcase just how far the Jaguars have come under coach Doug Pederson.
“It’s going to be exciting. First one here in since 2011 which is crazy,” Lawrence said. “We’re excited, it’s another game at the end of the day, just a different day, different time of day. It’s going to be exciting, I’m sure the city is pumped and hopefully we get a nice, big crowd to get rowdy over here, so It’ll be fun.”
Pederson said that he wants players to enjoy the spotlight and the excitement of a Monday night game, but doesn’t want them to get too immersed in the spectacle of it.
It’s still one game.
“I think maybe the closer we get to the game possibly, one of the things that I’m going to keep talking to these guys about is just controlling emotion,” he said. “Staying in the moment, just focusing on your job this week. You don’t have to go out of your way or do anything extra special, just do your process.”
The Jaguars have built off their second half turnaround in 2022 and started to play consistent football, something that they struggled with during the first half of the season as offensive issues mounted.
Lawrence has stacked back-to-back impressive games in wins over the Titans and Texans and seems to have escaped the rut Jacksonville’s offense had been in most of the year. Lawrence had more turnovers than touchdowns (10 to nine) after a Week 10 loss to San Francisco, a blowout that ramped up questions on if the Jaguars had regressed as a team since 2022.
That’s why the last two weeks have been so important for Jacksonville. Lawrence said that a humbling 34-3 loss to San Francisco coming off a bye week was something the team used to reframe its focus for the final stretch of the season.
“Yeah, I think in this league, you’ve got to use games like that to make you better. It can go one of two ways, it can make you better or you can kind of crumble from it,” Lawrence said. “I think this team has been really good at responding to adversity. … I think that [loss] helped us refocus a little bit and I know offensively, that was probably our worst performance of the year. We’ve used that and I think we’ve gotten a lot better the last couple of weeks.”
The last two weeks have shown several things. When Lawrence has time to operate, he’s supremely confident. The offensive line has held up well against Tennessee and Houston and Lawrence has delivered. After tracking to give up one of the highest sack totals in franchise history, the line has give up just one the last two games. That’s afforded Lawrence more time to look downfield and get receiver Calvin Ridley involved in the passing game.
Ridley has 12 catches for 192 yards and three touchdowns the last two weeks, his best stretch since joining the Jaguars. His two longest receptions of the season (34 yards against the Titans and 45 against the Texans) have been in those games.
“I think we’ve just been able to capitalize on more of those the last two weeks,” Lawrence said. “We’ve got to continue to find ways to do that.”
And, they’ll try and do it in primetime against the Joe Burrow-less Bengals. Pederson said that it’s surprising that the Jaguars have had such a long drought on Monday night. Then again, the Jaguars haven’t exactly been must-see TV for many, many years.
“Again, you have to earn that right to play on a Monday night or a Sunday night game,” Pederson said. “I feel like the guys have earned that for this game and hopefully we have more to come.”