Week 3 started clearing the fog around the NFL, and one of the clearest pictures came in Jacksonville. The Jaguars looked every bit like a team that shouldn’t have been brushed aside after winning 13 games and the AFC South last season, hammering the Patriots 35-6 at home and moving to 2-1.
Trevor Lawrence led the way with three touchdown passes, and the Jaguars’ run game kept piling on, finishing with 137 yards on 4.6 yards per carry. Jacksonville turned a matchup between two 1-1 teams into a rout by scoring touchdowns on all five of its red-zone trips. Chris Rodriguez Jr. and Bhayshul Tuten each added a rushing score, while the defense forced two interceptions and a lost fumble from Drake Maye and brought him down three times.
Maye’s rough start only got rougher. He entered the game after throwing four interceptions over the first two weeks and added two more in the loss.
Through three games, he has six interceptions and just one touchdown. Dating back to the playoffs, his last seven games have been ugly: 1,214 passing yards, 6.9 yards per attempt, seven touchdown passes and 10 interceptions.
That’s not a slump. That’s a major problem.
The Jaguars, meanwhile, are winning with depth and structure more than big names. Liam Coen and defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile have squeezed a lot out of a roster that doesn’t feature a single All-Pro player and has only a handful of Pro Bowl-level pieces such as edge rushers Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker. Against New England, six different players finished with at least 25 rushing or receiving yards.
That matters in a division where Jacksonville has already opened up a two-game cushion on the preseason favorites. The Texans have already lost to the Bills, the Bengals and the Colts on Sunday, Indianapolis sits at 1-2, and Tennessee is off to another rough start at 0-3 in Robert Saleh’s first year. The Jaguars still have a difficult stretch ahead, though, with games against the Bengals, Eagles and Texans before hosting Indianapolis and visiting the Ravens.
New England’s problems are harder to ignore. If the Patriots are going to salvage this season, they need their second-team All-Pro quarterback to look like a star instead of a replacement-level starter.
At 1-2, they’re already in a bad spot, and the schedule is about to turn harsh with a road trip to unbeaten Buffalo before home games against the Raiders and Jets. A loss to the Bills would make repeating as AFC East champions a lot tougher, especially with Maye struggling this badly.
There’s also the question of whether Josh McDaniels needs to rethink the offense. The Patriots will have a hard time stretching the field without A.J.
Brown, who is recovering from a high ankle sprain for another month, but New England didn’t have a loaded group of perimeter playmakers last year either and still made it work. The burden now is simple: Maye has to play better, and McDaniels has to adjust.
Buffalo, for its part, survived a game that almost got away. The Bills committed five turnovers, including three by Josh Allen, yet still beat the Chargers 24-16 to stay unbeaten.
Los Angeles could only turn those mistakes into 10 points, and Justin Herbert’s end-zone interception in the third quarter flipped the game when the Chargers were in the red zone with a 13-10 lead. Herbert finished with 6.6 yards per attempt, while Allen escaped the chaos by rushing for two touchdowns.
Houston is trying to keep from sliding into real trouble, but the early signs are grim. After a 19-17 loss in Indianapolis, the Texans are tied with Tennessee for last in the AFC South.
The offense has been a mess, with C.J. Stroud already taking 10 sacks and completing fewer than 60% of his passes in each of the last two weeks.
Houston has scored just 23 total points against the Bengals and Colts.
The absence of Nico Collins over the last two weeks has mattered, but it doesn’t explain everything. General manager Nick Caserio spent the offseason rebuilding the offensive line, signing right guard Wyatt Teller and using a first-round pick on left guard Keylan Rutledge, and the results still haven’t been there.
Defensively, the Texans have flashed at times, piling up 11 sacks through three weeks, but they also allowed 36 points in Week 1 and have given up 776 passing yards. In Indianapolis, they even had a late lead before Daniel Jones & Co. went 29 yards in 92 seconds for the winning field goal.
The next three weeks could decide whether Houston stays afloat or starts thinking bigger-picture. The Cowboys and Jaguars are both headed to Houston in that stretch, and if the Texans can’t straighten things out, they could be sellers by the Nov. 10 trade deadline.
In Other News...
Patriots Fans Just Got A Telling Caleb Lomu Update
The Patriots used a lopsided game against the Jacksonville Jaguars to get Caleb Lomu some extra work at right tackle, with head coach Mike Vrabel turning to the first-round pick after replacing Morgan Moses in the lineup. It was the kind of late-game decision that fit the moment, giving Lomu more live reps while the offense was already fighting from behind.
Vrabel made clear the move was about experience, not a depth-chart shakeup, saying Mosess starting job was not in danger. Still, it comes against a tricky backdrop for New Englands offensive line, which has already absorbed its share of hits with Mike Onwenu going on injured reserve and Greg Van Roten leaving the game with a thigh injury. [Read more 🡒]
Patriots Fans Will Recognize Vrabels Mood After This Collapse
The loss to Jacksonville had the kind of sloppiness that tends to linger with a coaching staff, and Mike Vrabel did not sound like a man looking for comfort after it. Turnovers and penalties helped sink the Patriots in a game that got away from them, and the bigger concern was the way the problems piled up while the team seemed unable to steady itself.
Vrabels response after the collapse carried the edge Patriots fans have heard before when things start slipping. He made it clear he is worried about where the group stands right now and said the focus has to be on improving what the team is putting on the field, which puts the spotlight on leadership as much as execution entering the next stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Patriots Pass Rush Problem Just Got A Lot More Urgent
The Patriots pass rush was already a concern, and the picture has only gotten thinner as training camp has worn on. New England did not bring back KLavon Chaisson, and injuries have sidelined Harold Landry and DreMont Jones, leaving the defensive front with fewer proven ways to affect opposing quarterbacks.
Matthew Judon is now expected to land with the 49ers and reunite with defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, which takes another familiar name off the board for a Patriots defense that could have used the help. Judons recent production has not matched what he delivered in New England, but the bigger issue for the Patriots is simpler than that: they still need more answers up front, and they need them soon. [Read more 🡒]