JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – This NFL season has been full of ups and downs for the Jaguars, but it is Week 16 and the AFC South title is at stake. With three games left and a playoff spot on the line, the Jaguars look to get back on track with a road game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on a Christmas Eve Sunday.
In the last three weeks, the Jaguars identity has completely shifted and now the pressure is on if they still want to achieve the goals that were set before the season started.
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Jacksonville was 8-3 with a comfortable division lead, but things have changed quickly. The Jaguars, Indianapolis and Houston all have the same record of 8-6. That means if Jacksonville wants to be crowned AFC South champions again then it has no room for error.
The Jaguars control their own destiny and hold the tiebreaker against both teams. If they win out, the Jaguars win the division and are in the playoffs.
It is definitely easier said than done, especially with this Jaguars team. The team has to limit the mistakes if it wants a chance to achieve some of the goals that were set before the season started.
The mental errors and injuries have devastated the Jaguars the past three weeks. On top of that, quarterback Trevor Lawrence has been in the concussion protocol after self-reporting the injury following the Ravens game.
On Friday, coach Doug Pederson said that Lawrence did practice but that he was still in protocol. Lawrence must clear it in time on Saturday in order to be allowed to travel with the team to Tampa.
If Lawrence is unable to give it a go on Sunday, backup quarterback C.J. Beathard will get the start. Beathard injured his non-throwing shoulder recently but was a full participant at practice on Wednesday and Thursday.
The pressure is on, and the first challenge is Sunday against a Tampa Bay team that is also playing for a lot. The Buccaneers currently have a record of 7-7 and are coming off of a huge win last week, beating Green Bay 34-20.
Tampa Bay is in a close two-way tie at the top of the division with the Saints. They currently hold the tiebreaker. Right now, the Buccaneers’ focus is on winning against Jacksonville and keeping the momentum going.
The Buccaneers are led by head coach Todd Bowles. He was hired as the team’s defensive coordinator in 2019 and was a part of their Super Bowl run several years ago. Bowles was named head coach last year after Bruce Arians retired and moved on to more of a senior football consultant role.
Whether the Jaguars are 100% or not, Bowles knows they have playmakers on the offensive side of the ball.
“Offensively, the way Ridley is playing right now, it’s hard to argue he’s not one of the top three (wide receivers) in the league right now with the way he’s been playing,” Bowles said. “Trevor Lawrence is a phenomenal quarterback, running and throwing the football. Etienne can run and catch the ball out of the backfield. Engram as a tight end wide receiver ... whatever you want to call him ... he can block, he can run, he can catch. They present a lot of problems.”
Tampa Bay’s offense is driven by quarterback Baker Mayfield, who is coming off an impressive performance last week where he was named NFC Offensive Player of the Week. Mayfield went 22 of 28 for 381 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions against the Packers.
He also became the first visiting player ever to record a perfect passer rating in a game at Lambeau Field with of 158.3.
The Buccaneers have adopted a “playoff mentality” over the past few weeks and everything came together last week.
Tampa Bay’s offense had its best performance of the 2023 season in Sunday’s 34-20 win over the Packers in Green Bay, producing season highs in total yards (452), first downs (22), third-down success rate (63.6%), yards per play (7.5), net passing yards (353), completion percentage (78.6), average gain per pass play (10.7) and average yards per pass (13.6).
Jacksonville is tied for the lead in takeaways this season with 25 and will definitely try and force turnovers on Sunday. Mayfield talked this week about the Jaguars’ ability force takeaways and mentioned several players who could present some issues.
“They do a really, really good job of it and it’s not just one guy ... it’s a lot of them,” Mayfield said. “It starts up front. Obviously, they’ve got two great pass rushers in Walker and Allen off the edge. Taking care of those guys – they present issues on their own. And then, the secondary, those guys up front allow the secondary to be extremely aggressive and they’re smart players.
“They have played a lot of ball together. They’re opportunistic, but we have to take care of the ball, especially this late in the year. The playoff mentality, it’s all about the ball – taking care of it and making sure we’re not doing anything to hurt ourselves. That includes for me penalties, turnovers and all of those negative plays. Eliminating all of those things when you play a team like this [is critical], and just trying to move the chains consistently.”
Bowles spoke highly of his quarterback’s recent play, saying Mayfield has “meant everything” to this team’s recent run.
“From a mental standpoint to a quarterback standpoint, making plays. From a toughness standpoint. From a leadership standpoint. He’s done everything,” Bowels said. “He’s checked all the boxes. He’s doing all the right things now and I can’t say enough about him.”
Mayfield isn’t doing it all by himself either. He has a plethora of weapons around him. Chris Godwin and Mike Evans are his receivers, and he also has Rachaad White coming out of the backfield. All three scored touchdowns last week. And White ended the game with 139 total yards from scrimmage.
Godwin caught 10 of 12 targets for 155 receiving yards last week, but he hasn’t been practicing this week due to an injury. Even if he can’t go, Godwin said Mayfield is exactly the guy he wants leading the offense.
“He’s gritty and he’s a baller ... he’s as fiery as they come, and you want that.” Godwin said. “You want your guy to be out there and to compete. Like there’s no flinch in him. He gets banged up. He gets hit. And he’s right back in it. Like there’s never any hesitation in him. We love that. We respect that in him. I’m happy for him. He came out here and found a way to ball.”
Mayfield will be ready go against Jacksonville come Sunday.
“I’ll be honest. December games are all important. This one was very important, but this one won’t matter unless we hit the reset button and move on to next week,” Mayfield said. “It can’t be more special than any other. It is the most important one now, but enjoy it, and then we will move on to next week. That is the mentality we have to have as a unit.”
Evans, a 10th-year wideout with Tampa Bay, has also been a huge target for Mayfield this year. His 66 receptions make him the first player in NFL history with at least 60 catches in each of his first 10 seasons. He also has over 1,000 yards in those 10 seasons.
Bowles says they offense has been “jelling” together.
“The receivers knowing exactly where to be, audibles are on time, offensive line playing together ... nobody is really missing a bunch of blocks right now,” Bowels said. “The confidence has grown, as a group, as the season went on. Dave is comfortable with them, they’re comfortable with Dave. The adjustments, the roles everybody has, and moving people around. I think they’ve grown very comfortable with that and that’s kind of helped us out a lot.”
Along the offensive line, Tampa Bay has one of the better pass-blocking units in the league, led by All-Pro offensive tackle Tristan Wirfs. He will likely be tasked with blocking Jaguars edge Josh Allen during this game.
Allen only needs one more sack to tie Calais Campbell’s single-season Jaguars record.
Bowles also talked about the team needing to keep an “urgency” mindset during this last stretch of games.
“I would say it’s more urgency, and momentum is coming with winning,” Bowels said. “The urgency is there. We know we have to win out to get to the playoffs; that’s been our mindset since we played Carolina; that’s our mindset this week, as well, against a good Jacksonville team.”
Defensively, Tampa Bay is tied for 11th in the NFL with 40 sacks so far this season. One of their best defenders, veteran nose tackle Vita Vea, has been nursing a toe injury but was a full practice participant on Thursday so he should be able to go on Sunday.
Another defender, linebacker Devin White, was a gameday scratch against Green Bay. He says the decision was to rest so that he could help his team, adding he has not quit on the team.
White has been dealing with a foot injury that has slowed his return.
Bowles has been preparing his team the past couple of weeks for the spot they are in right now. One of the team’s leaders on defense, linebacker Shaq Barrett, spoke earlier this week about the opportunity that’s in front of Tampa Bay.
“It’s just knowing what we can possibly have ahead of us if we handle the game of the week and how much we put in over this whole past offseason, training camp, and everything,” Barrett said. “We’re not ready to go home yet, so we’re going to do whatever it takes to keep our season going to get to the postseason. We just take it one game at a time, and like Bowles said two weeks ago, ‘The next couple of days we could be in first place,’ and we handled that, so now we just have to keep going, and keep controlling our own destiny. We don’t want to be in anybody else’s hands.”