Jaguars Handle ‘Chaos’ to Improve to 4-1

The Jacksonville Jaguars’ win against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday in London was chock-full of some of the biggest moments and themes of the team’s season to date. 

With a 57-yard field goal from kicker Cam Little clinching a 19-17 win on the game’s final play, it was certainly not the most dominant outing Jacksonville has had. Instead, much of the game on both sides was spent in chaos. 

For the Jaguars, the absence of long snapper Ross Matiscik (shoulder) was certainly felt. He was replaced by defensive tackle DaVon Hamilton, who held down the fort, but will not be a long-term solution, coach Liam Coen said Monday.

Jacksonville’s replacement for Matiscik arrived in London on Monday. 

“Just chaos for sure,” Coen said. “Hopefully this week by getting somebody in here, we’ll be able to alleviate some of that.” 

The lack of a long snapper is not to blame for all of the team’s struggles, though. The Jaguars (4-1) failed to execute in the red zone consistently throughout the contest, giving up countless opportunities to leave the Eagles (2-3) behind.

“Ton of things occurred throughout, but when you just boil it down to where we could have maybe made that game not what it ended up being, [it] was offensively in the red zone,” Coen said. 

One player who was exempt from the red-zone stalls was wide receiver Parker Washington. He grabbed both of the day’s touchdown passes from quarterback Trevor Lawrence, including a 51-yard connection that put Jacksonville on the board first. 

He finished the contest with six receptions for a team-high 124 yards. He also posted a game-leading 78 yards after catch. 

While not his longest, his biggest catch of the day was with 3:26 left in the game. With the Jaguars down 14-10, he caught a 27-yard pass from Lawrence to give his team the lead in the final minutes. 

“You’re amazed because of the moment and because of how big of a time it was,” Coen said of the catch. “But to look back and continue to see this guy make plays for our team, especially in some of these critical moments … it just speaks to the dude, and to make critical plays and critical moments, he’s showing that he can step up and do that stuff.”

As much as the chaos and the key moments characterized Sunday’s game, for the second straight week for the Jaguars, so did penalties. 

The Jaguars committed 13 penalties — the same as last week against the Bengals — for 100 yards. This included five — two delay of games, two false starts and a holding call — in the red zone with six minutes to play and Jacksonville down 14-10. 

Coen said the team has to go into the week with intentionality to clean up the issue.

“The penalties are concerning when you start the season off in the first three weeks as the second-least penalized team in the NFL, and now over the last two weeks, we’re arguably one of the most penalized teams in the NFL,” Coen said.  “Made it really hard on ourselves, and makes it very challenging to get into a rhythm.”

The Jaguars next play the Houston Texans (1-4) at 9:30 a.m. ET Sunday from Wembley Stadium. 

Category: Feature Sports News, Jacksonville Jaguars, NFL