Ground Game Shows Jaguars the Way Forward

Liam Coen’s run heavy plan against the Chargers should guide every decision from here on out.

Jaguars head coach Liam Coen did not hide from the pressure building around his offense. After weeks of inconsistency and a habit of putting the ball in Trevor Lawrence’s hands far more than his play earned, Coen made a clear choice Sunday. He ran the ball. Then he ran it again. And when the Los Angeles Chargers finally expected something different, he kept running it until they wore down and had no answers left.

The result was a dominant home win that looked steadier and smarter than anything Jacksonville has produced this season. The offense stayed on schedule. The defense stayed fresh. The crowd stayed engaged. The Jaguars finally looked like a team that knew what it wanted to be.

Coen’s plan was simple. Control the line of scrimmage. Play downhill. Limit Lawrence’s exposure. Jacksonville’s backs responded with force. They finished runs, punished tacklers, and turned routine carries into morale swings. The offensive line played with more edge than it has shown most of the year. Drive after drive, the Jaguars dictated pace behind a run game that refused to let go of control.

The numbers backed it up. The Jaguars rushed 47 times for 192 yards, averaged more than four yards a carry, and scored four times on the ground. Bhayshul Tuten delivered 15 carries for 74 yards and a touchdown. Travis Etienne Jr. added 19 carries for 73 yards and two scores. Even Lawrence punched in a short touchdown, a reminder that his legs can help, but his arm should not define this offense right now.

That commitment allowed Coen to call one of his cleanest games in Jacksonville. The structure was sound, the tempo steady, and the approach clear. The run game carried the weight of the offense and kept the Jaguars in control, even with Lawrence’s interception reminding everyone why leaning on the ground game matters.

This is not about nitpicking small flaws in Lawrence’s game. His issues have been bigger than that. When Coen leans on him to run the offense through the air, Lawrence has not met the moment. The problems repeat. He forces throws that are not there. He gives the ball away in situations where taking the safe play matters most. He misses open reads, tries to extend plays he cannot save, and pulls the offense off schedule. Games do not slip away because he is unlucky. They slip away because his decisions put the Jaguars in bad positions.

Too often this season, Coen has put too much trust in his quarterback, and Lawrence has not delivered. When the offense runs through him, the rhythm disappears. The identity disappears. The Jaguars end up chasing solutions while Lawrence tries to play his way out of trouble he created. Those stretches have cost the team games it should have controlled.

Sunday showed a better path. A strong run game creates a cleaner version of the offense and a simpler version of Lawrence. Play action becomes more effective. Defenses crowd the line. The field opens. Lawrence becomes a complementary piece instead of a desperate one.

Coen does not need to reinvent anything after this game. He needs to stick with what worked. When the run game delivers the way it did Sunday, the offense should stay run first. That approach sets the tone, controls the clock, and keeps the game out of the quarterback’s hands when he has not earned that level of trust. This performance should not be a one week shift. It should be the model moving forward.

If the Jaguars keep the ball on the ground and keep Lawrence in a controlled role, they will avoid the mistakes that have defined too many of their losses. They will stay on schedule. They will protect the ball. And they will look a lot more like the team that took command Sunday and never gave it back.