Jacksonville Jaguars vs. San Francisco 49ers Preview & Prediction | PFF

Jacksonville Jaguars vs. San Francisco 49ers Preview & Prediction | PFF

Jags and the 49ers. Oh man, 49ers. She’s still going through so many injuries. Obviously now down Nick Bosa for the entire season, man. She’s been so tough for this team. A talented roster when they’re fully healthy, but they’ve just really been going through it through the first three weeks. However, they’re three and0. What do we think about this one? Um, where do you want to start this discussion? I I want to start with Jacksonville’s defense because I’m just so impressed by their improvement in coverage. They were one of the worst coverage teams in the NFL last year, Trevor. Right now, they are second in the NFL in coverage grade. I think the MVP of this team really through their two in one start is Anthony Campanilele, their defensive coordinator. I think he’s been fantastic getting these guys to the right spots in in a lot heavier amount of zone coverage that they’re using than last year. Um, and really what intrigues me is their ability to defend the middle of the field. I’m just going to rattle off their highest graded coverage defenders right now. You’ve got Devin Lloyd, linebacker. Foyer Akulan, linebacker, sorry, Luakan, linebacker. Jordan Lewis, slot corner. Eric Murray, safety. Antonio Johnson, safety. Dennis Gard, linebacker. I think what you’re looking at here is the Jags ability to defend the middle of the field so well. They don’t miss tackles. They’ve got four interceptions between the numbers this year, most in the NFL. Best coverage grade in the NFL when they’re defending between the numbers. And we know Kyle Shanahan, whether it’s Brock Party or M. Jones, he’s going to want to attack the middle of the field. That’s what the NerS are so good at. Yes, with their play action schemes, but they just find so many different ways to condense formations and to attack the middle of the field. This is where the Jaguars have really been excelling. And it’s funny because the biggest names right now are their corners, their outside corners with Tyson Campbell and Travis Hunter, but it’s their ability to defend the middle of the field. They have committed so many resources now to saying, “Listen, we can’t have teams gashing us with these easy throws down the pipe. We got to make them earn it on the outside, outside the numbers. They’re doing that right now. They’re middle of the field coverage defenders and then the zone schemes that they’re adding into it. They’re playing fantastic football. They’re not missing tackles. They’re picking the ball off. It’s really tough right now to throw right through the teeth of this Jags defense. If you’re going to do it, they’re going to make you do it on the outside one-on-one against Campbell and Hunter. I wish I had something, you know, more deep and analytical about the Jags on the offensive side of the ball, but I think the offensive line’s playing decently well. I think Liam Cohen’s doing a great job in the run game, something that I don’t think people emphasized enough going into the season. We wanted to talk about the passing game, what he would be for Trevor Lawrence. Oh, they drafted Travis Hunter. Look at Brian Thomas Jr., like all that kind of stuff. But in reality, Liam Cohen was fantastic with the Buccaneers because he totally improved the efficiency of their run game. Yes, Bucky Irving is a great talent and that’s the reason why. But it’s also a Liam Cohen thing. He’s doing the same thing in Jacksonville. All that is on script. Dalton, the fact of the matter is the wide receivers in Jacksonville have to catch the football. It’s as simple as that. At this point, this team has been competitive in every single game. They’re a good offense. They catch They have 13 drop passes. That’s by that’s that’s more than any team in the NFL by three. The Cowboys are next with 10. The Panthers are right below them with nine. You got 13 drops through three games. That is crazy. And it’s also coming from a lot of your stars, specifically Brian Thomas Jr., first couple of weeks for Brian Thomas Jr. were ugly. Last week, he’s dropping passes. Parker Washington’s dropping passes. You’ve got to catch the football. I can sit here and talk about, well, I want him to attack deep a little bit more. Well, I want Lawrence to be able to, you know, get to different reads a little bit with a little bit um faster pace and a little bit more comfort, a little bit more control, whatever. I think Lawrence has been fine. Perfect. No, totally fine. You got to catch the football. That’s basically it at this point. I don’t really know how to judge this Jacksonville Jaguars team until the wide receivers do the basic act of catching the football. And I’m not saying that every pass has been super easy. It never is in the NFL. But I you can’t have 13 drop passes through three weeks. That’s you’re you’re not going to win football games. You’re just not going to convert the way that you need to. You’re not going to march the football down the way that you need to. You’re not going to score enough points. So the run game is good. I think the offensive line’s playing well. I think Trevor Lawrence is playing well enough. I just can’t judge much of this team outside of them needing to catch the football more. And I think that that’s just what it comes down to for them. Yeah. I have the Jags winning this game. I think the Niners are just too hurt. And I think that drops are something that are frustrating, but I think that they are something that is very easily fixed. So being more focused, being more disciplined in your technique or just how you are as a receiver when the ball arrives, what like not taking your eyes off of it to peak up field or think about what you’re going to do yards after the catch. I think that this could be a quick fix for Jacksonville and I like a lot of the rest of what they bring to the table. You mentioned how they’ve been on the defensive side of the ball. I think they’re cooking on that side of the ball. I still think that that is going to be good this upcoming week. I think the run game is going to be efficient. If the offensive line keeps playing well, if you tell me that they have zero drops this upcoming week, I think they win this football game because they’ve shown signs to be good enough to do that before these drops. I’ll say Jaguars 28, San Francisco 49ers 21. Um yeah, I think to your point on Lawrence about the drops and everything and I know a lot of people get on Lawrence for ball placement and different things, but our quarterback charting among among quarterbacks with at least 25 attempts this year, we have him as the eighth most accurate quarterback in football and his uncatchable rate is middle of the pack. It’s not fantastic, but it’s good enough. I think when you look at this Jaguars team, they just need to execute better and they if they executed better, they’d probably be 3 and 0 right now. I This to me is maybe the hardest game of the entire slate to pick. I have the Jaguars also 20 to9. I I’m going with your old onepoint one-point score. Just have no idea who’s going to win this game. Uh we don’t know yet if it’s going to be Brock Pury or M. Jones. Um I I think Nick Bosa being out is a huge problem for the 49ers defensive line. And I think the big matchup for the 49ers on offense is going to be Christian McCaffrey, especially in the receiving game against Devin Lloyd and Foyer Aluakan who have both been fantastic in coverage. I I just wonder if the Niners do have to throw the ball to the outside. Is Ricky Pawol going to win those battles as consistently as he has been against Travis Hunter, against Tyson Campbell, and is M or M. Jones or Brock Party going to be able to make those throws to the outside or is this Jags team going to continue to be so stingy in the middle that it’s going to cause the Niners problems? There’s a lot of different factors in this game. I think it’d be a wild football game. I will squeak by there with Jacksonville with a closer score than you have it right now. Jacksonville is getting three and a half. So, I kind of like that one. If I was betting one of these teams against the spread, I would feel good about a team getting more than field goal here, even with Jacksonville being the road team with this game in San

PFF’s Dalton Wasserman and Trevor Sikkema preview the matchup between The Jacksonville Jaguars and The San Francisco 49ers.

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