The Jacksonville Jaguars faced off against the Kansas City Chiefs in their home-opener. The Jaguars had high hopes going into the game with a rejuvenated offense and a strong returning defense.
Unfortunately, the game didn’t go as planned for Jacksonville, as the team fell to the Chiefs in a 40-26 loss. Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs dynamic offense was ultimately too much for the Jaguars. However, there were some positives to also take away from the loss.
Here are some winners and losers from the Jaguars’ Week 1 loss to Kansas City:
Winners
WR D.J. Chark
One of the biggest winners from Week 1’s game was second-year receiver D.J. Chark. He had a disappointing rookie season, only catching 14 balls last season. The Jaguars were hoping for a big leap from Chark in his second year, and Sunday, he proved he may be on the way to that.
Chark had quite the day, hauling in four catches for 146 yards and a touchdown against the Chiefs. This is an encouraging sign for the Jaguars, and if Chark can continue to develop, the Jaguars will be in a more favorable spot to support new starting QB Gardner Minshew.
RB Leonard Fournette
Leonard Fournette had a very nice start to his third season today. While he didn’t have a super impressive day from a numbers standpoint, and had his first fumble, the former first-round pick looked much quicker. He ultimately ended the day with 13 rushes for 66 yards and also made an impact in the passing game, catching four passes for 28 yards. This has been an aspect of Fournette’s game that John DeFilippo has been looking for him to improve on. After Week 1, it looks like Fournette is off to a good start.
QB Gardner Minshew
Jaguars’ starting quarterback Nick Foles went down in the first quarter on a touchdown pass to DJ Chark with a broken left clavicle. While Foles’ exact status is unknown, Minshew stepped in as his replacement.
Of course, Minshew wasn’t able to lead the offense to a win but he did show impressive accuracy and the ability to consistently move the ball down the field. On 25 passes, Minshew ended up completing an impressive 22 of those for 275 yards with two touchdown passes and one interception. While the injury to Foles is certainly a brutal gut-punch to the Jaguars and their fans, Minshew’s performance did give some hope for the near future.
Losers
QB Nick Foles
The biggest loser of this game has to be Foles and the Jaguars as a whole. The team went into the offseason believing they were one quarterback away. That led them to the acquisition of Foles through a massive contract in hopes he could take the team to the next level.
Now, all of that looks to be in jeopardy as Foles went down in the first quarter with a shoulder injury, which ended up being diagnosed as a broken clavicle. For the foreseeable future, he will be unable to play, dampening the team’s chances for a playoff berth in 2019. Jacksonville will just have to wait for their leader to return, hopefully, as soon as possible.
The defense
Many, including myself, thought it would be the offense that struggled going into this game. It turned out to be the complete opposite as the defense was unable to stop the vaunted Kansas City offense. Mahomes got off to a hot start, finding Sammy Watkins early and often, who aided him to a passing yard total of over 300.
The defense, at times, looked outmatched, even with the Chiefs’ early loss of Tyreek Hill to injury. Mahomes and company didn’t slow down and ended up putting up 40 points on the formidable Jaguars’ defense. The ejection of linebacker Myles Jack certainly did not help either, as he was a key to the game in terms of covering tight end Travis Kelce. The Jaguars’ defense was expected to return to their 2017 form this season, but one game in, it does not appear that is the case. Hopefully, they can figure it out quickly and as they’ll be taking on a divisional rival in the Houston Texans next week.
