JACKSONVILLE. Fla. – The Jaguars get a re-do in prime time.
The AFC’s top team, the Baltimore Ravens, are coming to Duval for Sunday Night Football. Kickoff is slated for 8:20 p.m. The Jaguars are returning to Sunday’s prime-time game for the first time in 15 years. Their last Sunday night matchup was Oct. 5, 2008, a 26-21 loss to Pittsburgh at home.
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“Me and the guys are excited for this week, it’s two good football teams coming together,” Pederson said. “Two top four right now in the AFC playing. Obviously, it’s great for the NFL and great for fans. These are the games, again, it goes back to what I expect our players to get used to, playing in moments like this and games like this. Baltimore obviously has, but the confidence is high and the confidence is great. Again, we have to turn it internally and just focus on us, making sure we are doing everything that we can in our power to be prepared for these games.”
Jaguars series history vs. Ravens:
- Regular season series: 13-10
- Home record: 8-3
Last season, the Jaguars beat the Ravens in a 28-27 thriller in Jacksonville. The Jaguars scored 18 fourth-quarter points including a two-point conversion with 14 seconds left to take the lead. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence finished the game completing 67% of his passes for 321 yards and three touchdowns.
“It’s exciting,” Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence said. “Like I said for the Monday night game, it’s just another game. For us, nothing changes. We just play a little bit later Sunday night. We can’t make it more than it is, obviously it’s a great opportunity for us to take advantage of and play well in front of a bigger audience, crowd and all that, it’s going to be a night game, it’s going to be the only game on Sunday night. It’s exciting for us, but it really honestly doesn’t change much. We still have a job to do and I look back at the Monday night game, we ended up losing the game and not much to show for playing on a primetime game and you lose. That’s something where we’ve just got to focus on our job and taking care of business, no matter what time or what day the game is on.”
The Ravens are the third straight AFC North opponent for the Jaguars. In Week 13, the Jaguars lost to the Cincinnati Bengals 34-31 in their first Monday night football game since 2011. Last week, the Jaguars lost at the Cleveland Browns, 31-27.
“We need to get back on track this week for sure,” Lawrence said. “There’s still plenty of time. You look at where we’re at, if we could’ve been in this position last year, we would’ve given a lot to be here. There’s no panic, but there is a sense of urgency where this time of year in December and going into January, you’ve got to be playing your best football and we’re not there yet. We’ve got some work to do.”
It will be a tough task for the Jaguars to defend the AFC’s third-best overall offense which also has the top-ranked rush offense. Quarterback Lamar Jackson is an explosive dual-threat player.
“This is a very explosive, high-energy player,” Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said. “Great football player, great quarterback. One of the things he’s doing this year, which was a point of emphasis for them, throwing the ball a little bit more from the pocket and he’s done a nice job for that. It takes all 11 on defense, you can’t let your guard down with him not only in the run game, but the pass game as well. When you get an opportunity to tackle him, you’ve got to tackle him because he can definitely burn you with his speed. You try to slow him down, try to minimize the explosiveness, but at the same time, with his ability to throw the ball, he makes it a challenge.”
Jackson has completed 66.8% of his passes for 2,934 yards, 16 touchdowns and six interceptions. On the ground, he has 123 carries for 644 yards and five touchdowns. Jackson is no stranger to extending drives with his ability to scramble and pick up extra yardage. When you add two of their key skill players: wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. and running back Gus Edwards, that will call for what should be a tough task for the Jaguars defense to contain all four playmakers.
This will be the second week in a row that the Jaguars will line up against one of the best defenses in the league. In Week 14, the Jaguars faced the top-ranked Browns defense. Now they will get the second-best defense in the league. The Jaguars struggled on offense against the Browns. The game showed how integral wide receiver Christian Kirk is to the success of the offense. Now the Jaguars should have a better idea of how to attack a dominating defense without one of their best receivers.
“That’s going to be a point of emphasis offensively, the route detail and the discipline aspect of it,” Pederson said. “I tell the guys all the time, you don’t have to go chasing plays. Just do your job and let the play or the ball come to you. Then, make the play when it comes. Much like the issues on defense, it just comes down to that. Just do your job, let the coaches coach, let the players play, have great dialogue throughout the week, work through these issues now during practice so that they don’t show up and repeatedly don’t show up in games. That’ll be a focus for us offensively, is that attention to detail in the passing game.”
It’s no secret the Jaguars are having issues right now. The team is stacking up injuries. Cornerback Tyson Campbell (quadricep) and safety Andre Cisco (groin) did not practice Wednesday. Offensive linemen Walker Little (hamstring) and Ezra Cleveland (knee) were both limited in practice as well as wide receiver Jamal Agnew (shoulder) whose 21-day practice window opened Wednesday as he returns from the reserve/injured list. Cornerback Tre Herndon was also practicing, but wearing an orange jersey as he is still in concussion protocol.
Another issue the Jaguars have expressed is their miscommunication in the past two losses. Pederson says that will be a focus in practice this week.
“I know one thing, at this level and at this game, where we are this late, we’ve played a lot of football,” Pederson said. “Those things just can’t happen obviously. It really just does come down to those guys just talking, just having conversation on the field, staying locked into the gameplan. One play at a time mentality; they don’t have to do anything other than that. Just trust that and trust their instincts and how they’ve been coached this week to execute that gameplan and they’ll be fine.”