The Jacksonville Jaguars 2019 season has been a forgettable one and most fans have been anticipating its end. The Los Angeles Chargers’ season has been equally disappointing, however, most tend to think they have a better chance to win Sunday’s game between them and the Jags.
With a 7-3 all-time record against the Jags and a better overall team than Jacksonville, there are several concerns we have here at Jags Wire for Week 14’s game. Here are three of our biggest concerns as they will look to end a four-game skid this Sunday:
The Chargers pass rushing duo of Nick Bosa and Melvin Ingram
The Jags will be up against one of the fiercest passing defenses in football as the Chargers only allow an average of 199.3 passing yards a game. That’s good for fourth in the league, which means the Jags could struggle to find guys like DJ Chark Jr. and Dede Westbrook through the air.
Part of the reason for that is because of the dynamic duo they have as pass rushers in Melvin Ingram and Joey Bosa, both of whom have grades of 77.9 and 86.2, respectively, via Pro Football Focus. The two will enter Sunday’s game with a combined total of 14 sacks and will be looking to get after rookie quarterback Gardner Minshew II.
The most concerning part about going up against the Chargers pass rush is how Cam Robinson is playing at the moment as he hasn’t been overly impressive. Jawaan Taylor could also have issues against the dynamic pair as he’s had issues with penalties and leads the league in the category with 13.
This issue brings me to my next topic of concern.
The Jags penalty issues
While Taylor leads the league in penalties, his teammates are equally undisciplined. Like him, the Jags will enter Sunday’s game first in penalties with 105 counted against them for 918 yards. To put that in perspective, that’s nearly the total amount of rushing yards Leonard Fournette has at the moment (981).
Simply put, the Jags are the most undisciplined team in football and there is nothing Doug Marrone can do at this point to correct it. When looking at the Jags’ games in the past, Sunday’s game would be a success if they only had eight penalties on the day. However, if they reach the double-digits, that in all probability would result in a loss unless the Chargers are equally undisciplined.
Gardner Minshew’s ball security
“Minshew Mania” is back and fans are excited to see how much the rookie has improved after sitting two and a half games. Minshew has a grand opportunity ahead of him to put together some solid tape to end the season and impress whoever is running the team next year. Heck, he may even impress enough to win a starting job in 2020.
If he’s going to make a strong case to start in the future, one thing he’ll need to clear up is his fumbling issues. So far he’s fumbled the ball 12 times and has lost seven of them. Simply put, with the possibility of the game being a tight nail-biter, he can’t give up the ball to Philip Rivers and the offense as they are the sixth-best passing team in football.
