The NFL season is officially back! This past sunday, 26 teams took to the fields, trying to gain their first victories of the season. One of these teams was my team, the Jacksonville Jaguars. At 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, September 11th, the Jags squared off against the Green Bay Packers, giving fans an official look as to what to expect from the Jaguars this season. After watching the whole game front to back, I decided to review every aspect I could think of. There was some good, but also some bad. Here's what I thought after watching the Jaguars' season opener.
Offense
Passing: It was sluggish in the first half. That bobbled pass with Marquise Lee that led to an interception didn’t look promising at all. But as the game moved on, Blake Bortles’ passes looked better. There was a nice 22-yard touchdown reception with Julius Thomas in the second quarter. The Allen brothers also made some great catches in the second half, including several fourth down passes to Allen Robinson. However, there were still some costly drops in the fourth quarter.
Rushing: Not to hate on TJ Yeldon, but the game's rushing performance from the Jags was pretty subpar. Yeldon’s longest rush was for seven yards and quite a few didn’t make it back to the line of scrimmage. If Chris Ivory had been playing, things might have been a little different for the run game. Ivory was labeled inactive prior to game time after being admitted to the hospital for a sickness.
Offensive Line: The Jags’ offensive line isn’t good in general and it showed today. Even though Bortles was only sacked twice, any pass or rush behind the line of scrimmage was practically doomed. Just look at the last fourth and one screen play pass that ended the game.
Defense
Pass Rush: What pass rush? Aaron Rogers was hardly under pressure the entire game, especially in the 3rd quarter. Rogers wasn’t sacked once and there were also a couple of missed opportunities for the pass rush to get a safety in the second quarter.
In General: Besides the pass rush, the rest of the Jacksonville defense looked improved from last season. As Jalen Ramsey promised, Aaron Rogers did not complete a pass to any man Ramsey was guarding. They also held Rogers to 199 pass yards, which was less than what Bortles finished with (320 pass yards). The run defense needs work though, for Eddie Lacy seemed to run through the Jaguars defense with ease. But to be fair, a lot of that also has to do with the defensive line, who are also the pass rushers.
Special Teams
There wasn’t a whole lot to see from this aspect, but what I did see was not bad at all. But Jason Myers did good in the season premiere, nailing three field goals and two extra points. There was also Brad Nortman’s two punts that were spotted near the goal line in the second quarter. There wasn’t a whole lot that was impressive for the kickoff and punt returns, but again, it wasn’t bad by any means.
Game as a Whole
Yes, the Jags lost (23-27 was the final score). Believe me, I was upset after the game and I still am now. But when you think about it, they gave a Super Bowl contending team a run for their money. Had Jacksonville converted on that fourth and one play with 16 seconds left in the game, we might have been talking about a victory. So long story short, this is a moral victory (if anything) for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Their play against such a good Packers squad shows that this Jags team is poised to turn some heads this season in the NFL. They may have started the 2016 0-1, but there’s still 15 games to go.
