How Jacksonville Jaguars silence critics in win over LA Chargers
The Jacksonville Jaguars were unstoppable against the Chargers on Sunday and we broke down the team’s sixth win of the season shortly after.
The Jacksonville Jaguars defeated the Los Angeles Chargers 35-6, a week after a major loss to the Houston Texans.The Jaguars utilized a ball-control offense, running for 192 yards and limiting quarterback Trevor Lawrence to just 22 pass attempts.Head coach Liam Coen said playing with ‘an edge’ was key to the Jaguars’ performance.
This is what Liam Coen envisioned when he became the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
A team that dominates in the trenches, plays ball-control offense, and can grind out games until their opponent has had enough.
A team that looks inward to fix things instead of worrying about how the next team might play against them.
“Who are we playing next week?” Jaguars defensive end Josh Hines-Allen asked members of the media. The team is focused on the now, not who’s up next.
It’s the type of mentality that enables teams to get better, even after one of the worst losses in franchise history. A week after the Jaguars blew a 19-point lead against the Houston Texans, they held on to beat the Chargers by even more, 35-6.
Isolation can be rewarding under the right circumstances, and the Jaguars focused solely on themselves this week, honing in on what’s important.
And even more? They were angry.
“It was a quieter week and I think that was probably because we were pissed off at the finish last week and we play better pissed off. We are,” Coen said after the game Sunday.
“We talked about edge for a long time now, and when an edge and we play as a team and it’s about the team all the time, good things happen typically for us.”
The Jaguars played with an edge all game and dominated the Chargers from start to finish. The defense’s performance was impressive, but the offense’s performance was exactly what they needed.
Jaguars use ball-control offense, creativity to defeat Chargers
The Jaguars have been creative under Coen since the first week of the season, but they haven’t been able to open up the playbook due to various reasons, including penalties, turnovers or poor execution.
This week, they executed and received just one penalty for five yards — and that came on defense. The Jaguars ran the ball very well, running for 192 net yards, their second-most this season and most since Week 1 (200 yards, Panthers).
Jacksonville threw the ball sparingly, just 22 times, with Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence completing 14 for 153 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
The kicker? Eleven of Lawrence’s 14 completions went for first downs. That efficiency is something Jacksonville has been hunting up all year. The Jaguars finally got it against Los Angeles.
“I thought I just started with running the ball efficiently and effectively. I thought Trevor was playing really well, especially just spitting the ball accurately, especially going through a lot of progressions, getting to the number two or three or four read in the progression a few times,” Coen said.
“We were good in the red zone, solid on third down. Didn’t have all those self-inflicted wounds that we have kind of been hurt by in weeks past. I thought the guys just executed and play their tails off.”
Jacksonville converted 50% (5 of 10) of its third downs, while it scored on five of six red-zone opportunities throughout the day. They totaled 345 net yards.
Lawrence sported a playsheet wristband for the first time this season against the Chargers. It was yet another tool that helped Jacksonville play efficiently and effectively.
Lawrence said using a wristband was something the team discussed earlier in the season, but they stayed away from it.
The wristband added speed to Jacksonville’s operation, and also helped the team in situational plays such as third down, red zone and other longer calls. Because of that, they didn’t get called for any pre-snap penalties.
“We got out of the huddle pretty quick. There’s still some stuff we can work on getting in and out and getting up there and we got a few off late, but I thought it helped for sure,” Lawrence said.
Jaguars played angry, but they must remain focused
Coen said the team was upset after last week’s game. Well, after this week’s contest, perhaps the team won’t be as peeved at what occurred on the field. A 29-point win is something to smile about, not beat yourself up over.
The Jaguars are a better team when they play with an edge. That goes for both sides of the football, but especially in the trenches. But, how do they manufacture that?
“I don’t think that needs to be the motto. I think we need to take each week separately and have that same attention to detail that each player came out with this week to have and I think that’s where our focus needs to kind of remain,” Hines-Allen said.
“If we tend to stay within that type of focus as a team, as individuals, we will continue to have the outcomes we had today.”
The Jaguars will face off against the Arizona Cardinals next week, by the way. They aren’t the face of the NFL. They aren’t a big-shot winning team that will test every aspect of your franchise. They’re a 3-7 club without their starting quarterback.
That can be dangerous, playing with nothing to lose like Houston was last week. The Jaguars will need to hone in on their details, something Hines-Allen said playing upset helped them do.
“Maybe I have to come up earlier and get extra treatment. Maybe I have to do more studying. Maybe I have to be in the playbook a little bit more. Maybe I have to study something differently, you know?” Hines-Allen said.
“I think that put more focus on everybody has to be where they need to be. If that’s the focus that we have moving forward, we’ll be a tough team to beat.”
Demetrius Harvey is the Jacksonville Jaguars reporter for the Florida Times-Union. You can follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @Demetrius82 or on Bluesky @ Demetrius.
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