5 Bold Observations on Jaguars' Shellacking of Chargers

Just a week ago, Jaguars head coach Liam Coen had strong words about the Jaguars pass rush, and it’s ineffectiveness against the Houston Texans. Against the Chargers, the Pass rush, set the tone from the first play of the game as Travon Walker for intentional grounding, and the Jaguars did not let up from there. The Jaguars harassed Justin Herbert throughout the game, much more than their sack total indicated.

It wasn’t just one player, either. Josh Hines-Allen’s record-breaking sack was the most important after it forced the Chargers to settle for a field goal in a 7-3 game. But Walker had a quality day, Arik Armstead recorded a sack, and undrafted rookie pass rushers Danny Striggow and BJ Green each flashed. Striggow split a sack with Walker, and Green would have had his first career sack if not for a poorly officiated penalty. 

Run game leads the way

The Jaguars truly leaned on their running game against the Chargers, taking advantage of where an otherwise strong defense was weak. The Jaguars absolutely shredded Los Angeles on the ground, and the Jaguars were also able to build out several successful, passing plays as a result, such as a Tim Patrick touchdown from Trevor Lawrence.

Bahyshul Tuten led the Jaguars with a breakout performance before a late ankle injury, and Travis Etienne scored twice. Add in Trevor Lawrence’s rushing score and the Jaguars found pay dirt on the ground four different times with three players. This felt like how Liam Coen wanted to play offens

Liam Coen deserves his flowers …

As for Coen, he had one of his best games as the Jaguars play. In the office were consistently in rhythm and ahead of the sticks, he stayed committed to the run game, and he was able to find some efficiency within the Jaguars passing game. He was able to spread the ball around to guys like Jakobi Meyers, Tim Patrick, and Johnny Mundt. And considering how much Jaguars were missing on both sides of the ball, this felt like a strong game from Coen and his staff. 

There were legitimate questions as to whether the Jaguars would be able to respond after last weeks heartbreaking loss to the Texans. Coen in the Jaguars show that he has built a team that could be tough in the face first and it wasn’t just the overall performance that bounced back. Coen himself had a heckuva game. 

… as does Anthony Campanile

A lot of credit to Jaguars defense coordinator Anthony Campanile as well. The Jaguars played one of the best quarterbacks on their schedule and Justin Herbert, and while he is missing several key offensive lineman, that did not seem to matter when the Jaguars faced Davis Mills last week. This time, though the Jaguars took advantage of the opportunity in front of them, and Campanile‘s unit turned in are you’ll be it best game of the season, not allowing the Chargers to find the end zone a single time and allowing just six first downs by the time, Herbert came out of the game of the fourth floor.

The fact that the Jaguars had this kind of performance against Herbert is even more impressive when you consider how many players they were missing on defense at one point, they were down their top three corners, the top safety, and had one of their best defenders, leaving the game with an injury. Playing with a host of backups and inexperienced young players Campanile and his coaching staff got the Jaguars defense to turn in a fantastic performance.

Play of the day

Picking the best play from a game of dominated reps is not an easy thing to do with that said it feels like the best player of the day hast to go to ETN on his late touchdown run. On the play, you can see the Jaguars off of line blowing the fenders off the ball, you see Robert Hainsey driving a linebacker into the back of the end zone, and you see Etienne with a tough run to land in the end zone and officially put the Chargers down for good. The Tim Patrick TD deserves consideration, too.