The Jacksonville Jaguars unfortunately acquired their seventh double-digit loss season under owner Shad Khan after falling to the Atlanta Falcons Sunday. It was a game in which the Jags got off to another slow start and had to play from behind, which clearly isn’t a strength of theirs. In the end, the Falcons ended up covering the spread of 7.5 with ease, winning the game by a score of 24-12.
All of that said, lets take a look at the good, bad, and ugly moments from Sunday’s game against the Dirty Birds:
The good: CB Tre Herndon
In a game where there wasn’t a lot of positives, cornerback Tre Herndon definitely brought his A-game. He was very active Sunday against the Falcons, accumulating three tackles, two pass deflections and a pick on the day.
In the play in which Herndon got the interception, quarterback Matt Ryan was trying to hit Julio Jones deep after a roll out, but Herndon came to help out veteran corner A.J. Bouye and high-pointed the ball. It marked his third of the year and he now leads the team in the category.
Herndon has been gaining confidence since becoming the Jags starter in Jalen Ramsey’s place. That said, he’s made a case to be a starter in 2020 at the cornerback position as there is still plenty of room for him to further develop.
The bad: The Jags’ rush defense
The Jags only allowed 135 rushing yards on the day over 24 attempts, but it feels as though most of those attempts were for a significant gain. Additionally, it wasn’t even Devonta Freeman who led the way on the ground as Brian Hill led the team in rushing yards with seven carries for 66 yards and a whopping 9.4 yard average.
Freeman, on the other hand, had 13 carries for 53 yards, which was good for an average of 4.1 yards.
With Myles Jack on injured reserve alongside Quincy Williams, the Jags had to once again roll out a makeshift unit at linebacker with Austin Calitro and Donald Payne getting to start alongside Leon Jacobs, so most expected yards to come easy for the Falcons. In the trenches, it also hasn’t helped that the team has been without Marcell Dareus, who the team depended on the most to stop the run.
The ugly: The rest of the passing defense
Aside from Herndon, nobody in the back seven really had a good day as Matt Ryan nearly threw for 400 yards and Julio Jones shredded the secondary for 10 catches and 166 yards. Most of the day, Jones was lined up against veteran corner A.J. Bouye, who may have nightmares about their matchup.
Tight end Austin Hooper also had a good game, hauling in seven catches for over 80 yards. The Jags also had no answer for Freeman, who had nine catches of his own for 74 yards and a touchdown.
Simply put, it was hard to watch and the game proved the Jags defense needs massive upgrades from the coordinator position to various positions on the field.
