The Jacksonville Jaguars fell to two games below .500 after suffering a defeat at the hands of the New Orleans Saints Sunday and have some ground to make up. They’ll be traveling up north to Paul Brown Stadium to face a team in which they have history with: the Cincinnati Bengals.
Here are some things to know about the upcoming matchup, which is a must-win for Jacksonville:
The Jags own the series with a 12-9 record over the Bengals
The Bengals are one of the few teams the Jags have a winning record with when looking at the history between both. They will enter Week 7’s game with a 12-9 record against Cincinnati, with the last meeting occurring in 2017. Of course, that was the infamous game in which former cornerback Jalen Ramsey and A.J. Green got into a scuffle, while their teammates also had some separate altercations occur.
Of course, the Jags won that game by a score of 23-7, but before that, they weren’t nearly as successful. In fact, they were on a four-game losing streak to the Bengals previously, so the Bengals enter Week 7 a 4-1 record against the Jags when looking at their last five matchups.
The Bengals are the worst team in the NFL against the run
The Jags are coming off a two-game losing streak and need to turn their season around immediately. Luckily, they’ll play a winless Bengals team who some believe are the worst in the league. Part of their struggles has been due to their inability to stop the run, giving up an average of 184.5 yards per game, which is good for dead last in the NFL. Of course, this is important because that’s an area where the Jags want to establish themselves.
The Jags will come into Week 7’s game just one spot outside of the top-10 in terms of rushing the ball and Leonard Fournette has found some success on the ground. Even in Sunday’s loss to the Saints, Fournette ran hard and wasn’t necessarily the reason the Jags lost. That said, I think Sunday’s game provides the opportunity for Fournette to get back to the explosive plays we saw from him prior, which could translate to success for the rest of the offense, too.
First-year head coach Zac Taylor is still trying to find his way but the Jags shouldn’t take his team lightly
Life can be tough for a first-year head coach in the NFL and Zac Taylor is finding that out now. After years of dealing with the postseason failures of Marvin Lewis, the Bengals moved on from their long-time head coach in favor of Taylor, who formerly was on Sean McVay’s Los Angeles Rams staff from 2017-18.
Needless to say, the Bengals don’t have the talent that the Rams do and are on the opposite end of the spectrum. However, that doesn’t mean that Taylor can’t get a win or two out of the team despite the Bengals heading towards a potentially long rebuild. Simply put, this could be a trap game for the Jags and they need to approach the Bengals just as they have the rest of their opponents.
When looking at their season, the Bengals have been in some of their games to the end. They barely lost their Week 1 game to the Seattle Seahawks as the score was decided by one point (21-20). They also kept it close in their last two games, losing to the Arizona Cardinals 26-23 and the Baltimore Ravens by two field goals (23-17).
Taylor currently is the team’s offensive play-caller and he’s certainly learned some things from McVay. He may scheme up some things to give the Jags some trouble, especially with the Jags being an inconsistent defensive group.
