JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – We are now entering Week 15 of the NFL regular season and the Jaguars are getting ready for a prime-time matchup on Sunday Night Football against the Baltimore Ravens.
Jacksonville’s season has been somewhat of a roller coaster with all of its ups and downs. Looking at the last two games, the Jaguars have struggled to finish.
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Most recently, the Jaguars took on the No. 1-ranked defense in the league in the Cleveland Browns. While they only lost 31-27, mistakes and injuries continue to plague the team on both sides of the ball.
And with that loss, the Jaguars dropped back-to-back games and now sit with a record of 8-5. The only positive, if any, is the fact that the Colts and Texans also lost last week, meaning Jacksonville is still leading of the AFC South by a game.
Jacksonville has four games left to get back on track this season and the Jaguars hope to bounce back this week against the AFC’s top team.
The Ravens are that team. They currently hold the top seed in the AFC with a record of 10-3 and have been playing lights out, winning seven of their last eight games.
Baltimore won in dramatic fashion this last weekend in overtime against the Los Angeles Rams 37-31. Ravens wide receiver Tylan Wallace made the play of the day after he returned a punt 76 yards for the game-winning touchdown. The walk-off score also earned Wallace AFC Special Teams Player of the Week honors.
Baltimore now shifts its focus to coming into Jacksonville.
The lights will be bright, and the stakes will be high; both teams control their destiny the rest of the way to make the playoffs and it starts with this game.
The Jaguars lead the all-time series 13-10.
The two teams played last year in one of the season’s best games. Jacksonville rallied in the fourth quarter and Trevor Lawrence hit Zay Jones for a two-point conversion to win the game 28-27.
But that was last year. Right now, the Ravens are playing like one of the hottest teams in the NFL.
Head coach John Harbaugh was hired by the Baltimore Ravens in 2008 and has been one of the league’s most consistent coaches since, being the only head coach in NFL history to win a playoff game in each of his first five seasons. He also coached the Ravens to a Super Bowl win in 2012.
Offensively, the Ravens are led by their star quarterback Lamar Jackson, and many believe Jackson’s performance in last week’s win built on his potential MVP case this season.
Jackson threw for 316 yards and three touchdowns in the team’s victory against the Rams. He also carried the ball 11 times for 70 yards.
On the season, Jackson has completed 66.8% of his passes for 2,934 yards, 16 touchdowns and six interceptions. He also leads the Ravens in rushing with 123 carries for 644 yards and five touchdowns.
He is a true dual-threat NFL quarterback.
Jackson was asked about the recent MVP talk but he is focused on one thing only.
“It’s an honor just being acknowledged – to be conversation with great guys,” Jackson said. “But I’m just trying to stay locked in trying to win, because I want another trophy.”
Even though Jackson lost one of his favorite targets in tight end Mark Andrews to a potential season-ending injury, he still has a list of weapons to get the ball out to including Zay Flowers, Odell Beckham Jr., Nelson Agholor, Keaton Mitchell, Rashod Bateman and more.
The Ravens currently have the league’s third-best overall offense and the No. 1-ranked rushing attack in the NFL with 157 yards per game.
One player to keep an eye on offensively for the Ravens is the rookie wideout Flowers, who is from Florida and will be his first regular season game back in his home state.
Flowers is playing his best ball as of late. He has three scores in the last two games and leads the Ravens in receiving with 673 yards on 64 catches.
Last week, Flowers caught a fourth-quarter touchdown and the two-point conversion to give Baltimore a lead late.
Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken says the pair has worked hard in practice to improve their chemistry and it is showing on the field.
“Like anything it’s just practice reps. That’s all it is,” Monken said. “The more you’re around the guys that you have to have that rapport with, the connection is going to grow, the anticipation to where they’re going to be, the communication, how we call it, you know in terms of targets.”
Monken says the team isn’t doing much differently; Jackson is just finding ways to get Flowers the ball.
“Sometimes you’re trying to design things where you want the ball to go there, and sometimes the ball just finds him. Sometimes it’s not always by design, especially with a guy like Lamar,” Monken said. “Some of the plays he ends up making are not by design, it’s where he ends up.”
The Ravens offense can be very dangerous when plays go off-schedule and Jackson uses his legs to extend plays. His scramble rate of 12.5% is a league-high and a career high.
All but a couple of Jacksons 70 yards rushing last week happened on scrambles, making him a potential nightmare for a Jaguars defense that has struggled recently.
Monken spoke highly of his quarterback’s confidence earlier this week.
“Lamar is already confident in his ability, and I don’t mean overconfident,” Monken said. “He loves playing football. Those moments never get too big for him.”
When it comes to the defensive side of the ball, the Ravens are also playing really good football. The unit currently ranks as the second-best defense in the league.
They also likely have the best tandem of linebackers in the league with Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen, both are playing at a Pro-Bowl level. The pair has combined for 13 tackles for loss, 10 passes defended, five sacks and two forced fumbles.
Last week, the Ravens gave up 128 yards to running back Kyren Williams. Queen was not pleased with the performance and hopes to make improvement this weekend.
“We’re looking at every way to improve that,” Queen said. “Honestly, it just comes down to every man owning their gap and doing the best they can. Sometimes, they have numbers on you, and somebody just has to go make a play. You have to take two gaps. We’re looking at ways to improve that. Internally – player-wise – we all want to improve on that. One of us might have to go the extra mile to make a play, so if that’s what we have to do, we’ll go do it.”
Both Smith and Queen will be locked on to Jaguars running back Travis Etienne.
“Etienne is a very talented back,” Smith said. “There’s a reason he went first round (No. 25 overall) as a running back. He can make one cut, make you miss, get North and South as well as he can bounce it.”
Baltimore is currently allowing the 12th-most yards per carry with 4.3 yards. They also do a great job defending the pass, holding opponents to the lowest yards per pass attempt all year with 5.6 yards per attempt.
The Ravens also lead the league in sacks so far this season with 49.
One thing that could help Baltimore this Sunday is the return of safety Kyle Hamilton. Hamilton suffered a knee injury last week. According to Harbaugh, Hamilton is in ”a good place” and may be ready to play against the Jaguars.
Baltimore will know before the game whether it can clinch a playoff spot with a win, but Harbaugh knows what his team has to do.
“Just because they put a bracket on the TV screen, it doesn’t mean anything,” Harbaugh said. “It’s what you do, so our guys understand that we have to go earn everything we get, and if we earn it, then we’ll get it. If we don’t earn it, we won’t. We are going to try to win as many games as we can, but really, play just one play at a time, compete as hard as we can, every single play, quarter, and game, that we can.”