JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jaguars are 1 and 0. That’s a nice start to the season. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a win. Mistakes, but the ability to still get a win, was my biggest takeaway from Sunday’s 26-10 win over the Panthers.
Over the past few years, it felt like the Jaguars had to play perfect football to have a chance to win games. A single holding penalty would derail a drive. It didn’t take long to see that things had changed on the opening drive; they had two holding penalties and still ended up getting a field goal.
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It helps when you have an automatic kicker like Cam Little. But that never seemed to happen before. It was feast or famine, all or nothing. Now, the Jaguars have the chance to learn from mistakes after a win. And those are the best kind of mistakes to learn from.
I know folks are tired of hearing it is different, but it just is. I have walked into a lot of Jaguars locker rooms after wins and losses. I’ve seen them throw parties coming off the field and in the locker room for winning one game. This time, not so much. It felt like the team expected to win. And now it was time to get back to work.
And there is still plenty of work to do. Eleven penalties for 93 yards. They have got to get that fixed. But there are a lot more positives.
Travis Etienne and Foye Oluokun were the stars of the day.
For Etienne, he has been surrounded by talk since Liam Coen took over. Is he the guy? Will he be the guy? Do they like him? Blah blah blah. Etienne went out and had one of his best games of his career.
The offseason is crazy, and regime changes can be crazy, and you never know how stuff will work out, but this seems like something that was overthought. Coen is a coach who likes to run the ball and has gotten the most out of his running backs. Why wouldn’t he get the most out of the guy who is now sixth in franchise history in yards from scrimmage?
On the other side of the ball, Oluokun has been a leader on the defense since he put on the jersey. He doesn’t get nearly the respect he should around the NFL. Oluokun just takes care of business. But for him, coming up with an interception and forcing a fumble was huge for the defense.
One game down and 1 and 0. But this one was a little bit of a warm-up game. The Panthers are exactly what we expected them to be … a bad football team. But that means the Jags did exactly what they were supposed to do: go and take care of business. Now, can they go out and do that against the Bengals next week? That would put the league on notice and make people change their expectations for the Jags this season.