Jacksonville, Florida – The Jacksonville Jaguars faced up against the Miami Dolphins on the road in their week 1 matchup. The vast majority of the professional analysts across all programs favored Miami due to the Dolphins’ success last season, along with the substantial stadium advantage Miami since the stadium is designed to shade the home team as the away team cooks in the Florida Sun. All eyes were on Miami as this was a game they were expected to win, facing up against a Jaguars team that had a catastrophic end to their season last year.
In spite of all signs pointing towards Miami, I had hope for the Jaguars. The Jaguars roster matched up well against the Dolphins. The Jaguars have a stellar defensive line against a questionable Miami offensive line which I believed would be a major difference in the game, and the Jaguars offense has such a large abundance of weapons that it seemed like it would be difficult for Miami to cover everyone.
On game day there were already headlines before the game even started as Dolphins star receiver Tyreek Hill was detained by police on his way to the stadium. Hill was handcuffed and tackled by policemen just a couple hours before kickoff and all of it was captured on video. Former Jaguar, Calais Campbell was also handcuffed when he attempted to speak with the police arresting Hill. Tyreek and Campbell managed to make it to the stadium and play the entirety of the exhibition, and the police officer who stopped Tyreek has been placed on administrative leave since the incident.
Once kickoff finally came, the Jaguars were determined to make a statement. Trevor Lawrence on his 2nd drive of the game led Jacksonville down the field after starting all the way back on their own 4 yard line. Trevor looked to end the drive with a deep touchdown to the rookie wide receiver out of LSU, Brian Thomas Jr. on what would have been a 41 yard touchdown. However, star cornerback and former Jaguars, Jalen Ramsey committed pass interference preventing the touchdown but giving Jacksonville the ball on the 1 yard line. Travis Etienne proceeded to punch in the score on the very next play. The Jaguars took the lead with the first score of the game, largely thanks to Trevor Lawrence and Brian Thomas Jr.
With 12 minutes left in the 2nd quarter Miami decided to go for it on 4th and 3 at Jacksonville’s 45 on a drive that was largely formulated by the 3 penalties called on the Jaguars defense. Miami failed this 4th down conversion giving Trevor Lawrence the ball close to mid field and he took advantage of it. Jacksonville attempted to run the ball, but the drive’s progression was due to a 30 yard pass from Trevor to Christian Kirk down the middle on 3rd down. Jacksonville found themselves in another 3rd down situation needing 11 yards for the first down in the red zone. Trevor wanted more than the 1st though, finding BTJ on a beautiful pass to the back of the end zone in which Brian displayed his concentration on a toe drag touchdown. This was Brian Thomas Jr.’s first career score and a statement play, proving to be the top receiver for Jacksonville already in just his first game giving Jacksonville a 14-0 lead as the underdogs.
The Dolphins followed up with a very long drive paved by running back De’Von Achane who made multiple solid gains both in the receiving game and as a runner, as well as a massive 3rd down conversion on a 20 yard pass from Tua to Jaylen Waddle. This long drive was topped off with a 1 yard walk in touchdown for Achane as well, seemingly cementing Achane as the top back in Miami’s backfield.
With 57 seconds left before halftime Trevor and the offense got the ball back and were determined to widen the gap. With less than a minute and only 1 timeout left this drive was completely on TLaw’s shoulders and he delivered with back to back passes for nearly 20 yards to Brian Thomas Jr. and then Gabe Davis. After one more 5 yard flick to Evan Engram, the Jaguars looked towards their rookie kicker out of Arkansas. Cam Little with 0’s on the clock sent a 53 yard field goal right down the middle to give the Jaguars a more comfortable lead before halftime.
At halftime this game clearly was in favor of Jacksonville. The Jaguars had a 2 score lead, Trevor Lawrence was playing exceptionally, and the Jaguars had over 70 total rushing yards compared to Miami’s 17 total yards on the ground in the first half. The Jaguars defensive line was seemingly too much for the Dolphins to handle as Travon Walker and Arik Armstead had a sack each, and the leading runner for the Dolphins was Tua Tagovailoa on just one 11 yard scamper. The Jaguars already had 5 tackles for loss and 2 sacks in the first half of the game. Meanwhile, the Jaguars running game was playing great and had the pass interference play been caught for Jacksonville, Trevor and Brian Thomas Jr. would have already combined for over 100 yards and 2 touchdowns.
The 1st 4 drives of the 2nd half went nowhere for either team, but Jacksonville started putting together an impeccable drive with over 5 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. Starting on their own 4 yard line, the Jaguars had back to back 20+ yard gains to start off the drive. After just 3 more positive plays all of a sudden the Jaguars had made their way all the way down to Miami’s 13 in the blink of an eye. On 1st and 10 in the red zone Trevor handed off to Travis Etienne Jr. who made a nice play and looked like he was going to walk in the endzone for 6, that is before disaster struck. Miami safety JeVon Holland punched the ball out from Etienne into the endzone and Miami recovered the fumble. An extremely fast and efficient drive in which the Jaguars looked dominant and would have likely sealed the win for Jacksonville, turned into a last second turnover giving the Dolphins all the momentum.
Miami certainly took advantage of this momentum as well with Tua throwing an 80 yard touchdown to Tyreek Hill on the very next play to bring the game within just 3 points. On top of this, on the kickoff following this massive swing in Miami’s favor, the Jaguars kick returner Parker Washington fumbled the ball. Thankfully he managed to recover the ball, but Miami felt like they were unstoppable at that moment.
On that Jaguars drive, Jacksonville was facing a very quick 3 and out to start off the 4th quarter after not throwing the ball once. At their own 32 yard line on 4th and 1 the Jaguars play caller, whether it was Doug Pederson or Press Taylor, made the most confusing play call of the opening weekend games. The Jaguars, who had a 3 point lead still, handed it off on 4th down to Travis Etienne running outside to his receivers with a collapsed offensive line. With terrible blocking and play design the end result was a -2 yard rush giving Miami the ball on the 30 yard line. The Jaguars got bailed out though as Miami MISSED the field goal.
On Jacksonville’s next drive they had 2 miniscule runs and Christian Kirk dropped the ball in his chest on 3rd down, Jacksonville punted. Miami’s next drive heavily relied on their running backs as Tua only had one pass downfield on the drive to Tyreek Hill. The Fins drove down the field and tied up the game with a field goal after Tua missed another pass on 3rd down.
With 2 minutes left in the game the Jaguars had a chance to drive down field and finally put the game away. The Jaguars offensive line was not a fan of that idea apparently as they allowed tackle for loss, sack, and sack on consecutive plays to end Jacksonville’s closing drive. Miami relatively effortlessly drove back down the field and scored a game winning field goal with 0’s on the clock.
Overview for Jacksonville:
Offensively Trevor Lawrence and Brian Thomas Jr. look like they are planning on dominating the league this year as a pairing that works better than PB&J. Gabe Davis and Evan Engram had very strong performances when involved, but were not a main aspect of the game plan. Tank Bigsby was extremely efficient and productive running the ball when on the field. That is the good sign of the coin for Jacksonville’s offense. On the other side Christian Kirk who was expected to have the best chemistry with Trevor looked off on Sunday with 2 very crucial 3rd down drops RIGHT IN HIS CHEST, he needs to play better especially when it matters. Etienne also needs to step up as he was outperformed drastically by Tank Bigsby against Miami, especially having the fumble in the endzone that turned the tides of the game. The Jaguars offensive line as a unit has no excuses either, they need to play a lot better for this team to find success. The Jaguars final drive was completely derailed by terrible blocking every snap. The Jaguars play calling situation is poor and unclear as they have refused to state whether Doug or Press is even the one calling the plays. One way or another the play calling needs to get better after an airhead decision to go for it on 4th down and some very questionable play designs. Furthermore, Trevor Lawrence was playing fantastic in this game, however after the Etienne fumble Trevor threw just one pass due to the poor play calling. This is not acceptable.
Defensively Jacksonville was extremely impressive. Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker led the league in sacks for a duo last year and look to get even better this season as Walker seems to have broken out starting the year off with 2 sacks already. On top of this the Jaguars interior defensive line looks spectacular with Arik Armstead, Roy Robertson-Harris, DaVon Hamilton, and rookie Maason Smith all impressing. Tyson Campbell at corner was playing completely shutdown on an island against some of the best receivers in the league, disappointingly he suffered an injury to his hamstring in the 2nd half and will miss some time. Tyson going down is part of the reason for Miami’s late offensive revival. The other defensive backs did their jobs but didn’t necessarily stand out. Finally, Foye Oluokun and Devin Lloyd were both the top graded players for Jacksonville and absolutely dominated in every facet the whole game. Foye and Lloyd may make a case as the best linebacker pair in the league. This Jaguars defense looked impeccable against one of the best offenses the league has to offer and new defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen is a massive reason for that. I expect Nielsen’s defense to continue finding success this year. This loss was in no way to the fault of the defense.
Overall, this was the Jaguars game to win or lose. They started off the game looking pristine at all levels and took a good lead. The game was a 3 hour version of their entire season last year. The Jaguars last year were momentarily 1st in the AFC last year at 8-3 looking like they locked up the division before a catastrophic end to the year. If we see the 1st half version of the Jaguars more consistently then this team will go a far way. There is still plenty of football left in the year and tons of great teams that started off this season with a loss, don’t lose hope Jaguars fans.