By CJ Carlson
It wasn’t a great day for the Jacksonville Jaguars when they took on the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday night. Jacksonville entered as the heavy favorites to win this game due to the Bengals starting quarterback Jake Browning in place of the injured Joe Burrow. Despite that favorite mark, the Bengals took it right at the Jaguars and found a way to pull out a 34-31 victory in overtime on the road. That wasn’t even the worst part for Jacksonville either, as they lost quarterback Trevor Lawrence to an injury.
The night started out back and forth, with each team trading touchdowns. When the team entered the second half, it was still looking as though Jacksonville could pull out the victory. That was until Lawrence went down with a lower leg injury that changed the game entirely. The injury was severe enough to keep him out for the rest of the game, forcing backup CJ Beathard to step up and lead the way down the stretch.
Beathard completed nine out of his 10 passes for 63 yards on the night, but it was clear that the offense wasn’t nearly as dangerous as it was before. Before exiting, Lawrence had completed 22 of his 29 attempts for 258 yards and two touchdowns without an interception.
Trevor Lawrence Injury Is Just One Of Many Concerns
What was worrisome yet again was the lack of a rushing attack. Despite how talented Travis Etienne is in the backfield, the Jaguars appear to be consistently underperforming back there. Etienne had 11 rushes for just 45 yards on the day with a touchdown. Backup D’Ernest Johnson had five rushes for just four yards as well. This team wants to win the Super Bowl, meaning that this run game has to start putting something together.
Lastly, I was very caught off guard by the poor defense that was played in Jacksonville here. They had two sacks and an interception, yet the interception was off a poor decision on a trick play from Tyler Boyd. Yes, a trick play where the wide receiver Boyd attempted to throw a pass. They allowed Browning to throw for 354 yards and a touchdown, while rushing for another one on the ground.
They also gave up over 120 yards rushing to Chase Brown and Joe Mixon. It’s a lot of bad news coming out of Jacksonville, with their defense and run game underperforming, the team losing, and Lawrence suffering a serious injury that could force him to miss games.
