The Jacksonville Jaguars had fared historically well in London coming into Week 7's matchup with the Los Angeles Rams. In this last game, they were on the wrong side of history, as Matthew Stafford became the first quarterback to throw for five touchdowns in an international game, routing the Jags at Wembley Stadium, 35-7.
A quick glance at the box score and the final result reveals that the Jaguars' offense did not find much success in this one. Everyone knows that LA has a fearsome pass rush, featuring Jared Verse, Byron Young, and Kobie Turner, but the Rams' questionable secondary left the door open for Trevor Lawrence and Jacksonville's attack to do some damage.
They couldn't capitalize. They moved the ball decently well, but penalties and some crucial situational missteps kept them off the scoreboard for the majority of this contest. It wasn't until the game was well out of hand that the Jaguars scored their first and only touchdown of the game. What did this blowout loss reveal about their fantasy football prospects?
Week 7 featured another game where quarterback Trevor Lawrence put together a decent box score, but his Jacksonville Jaguars just couldn't hang, largely due to some severe offensive shortcomings. He finished his day with 296 yards on 23-of-48 passing with one touchdown and no turnovers.
He also ran twice for 18 yards, totaling 17.6 fantasy points. However, he connected on less than 50 percent of his throws, matched his career-high in sacks taken with seven (which he just set last week against the Seattle Seahawks), and couldn't generate any consistent offense for this team until it didn't matter anymore. It's becoming kind of hard to ignore that T-Law's individual success doesn't exactly correlate with the Jaguars winning.
The one silver lining in this game for the Jaguars was that they were able to coax out a dominant offensive showing from second-overall pick Travis Hunter Jr., even if a lot of his numbers came in garbage time. He went for eight catches, 101 yards, and his first NFL touchdown, finishing with 24.1 full-PPR points.
Head Coach Liam Coen and the rest of the Jaguars staff have been adamantly open about their desire to get Hunter Jr. more involved within the offense. It came to fruition against the Los Angeles Rams, even if it was when it was too little, too late. Hopefully, the rookie can use this performance as a springboard and continue to ascend after the bye week.
Just like in their loss to the Seahawks, the Jaguars failed to establish the run in this game. They fell down early, going 3-and-out on their first drive while giving up a touchdown to Matthew Stafford on the other side of the ball on the Rams' first offensive possession of the day.
From there, it wasn't long before Jacksonville abandoned the ground game entirely. As a result, Travis Etienne Jr. only rushed eight times for 44 yards. He also had one catch for 11 yards. Thankfully, the Jaguars' schedule lightens up after the bye, but it's becoming clear that ETN is matchup dependent for fantasy.
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