Packers head to Florida to face the Jacksonville Jaguars
After two home games, both victories, the Packers hit the road as they play the Jacksonville Jaguars at Noon (Central Time) on Sunday.
Both teams are coming off victories. The Packers won 24-22 vs the Houston Texans on a field goal on the final play of the game, while Jacksonville defeated the New England Patriots in London last Sunday.
Trevor Lawrence is in his 4th season in the NFL. He had some ups and downs, but he is always a threat and gives the team a chance to win. The rest of the offense may not boast any household names, but RB Tank Bigsby and receivers Brian Thomas Jr. and Christian Kirk are players who can stretch the field. The defense needs to be disciplined. They failed to record a single takeaway for the first time all season vs the Texans. Let’s make up for it this week and take the ball away.
Jordan Love had 3 touchdown passes vs Houston but also 2 interceptions. He came up clutch in the final drive of the game, getting the team close and giving the kicker a chance to win it, which he did. This is another chance for the offense to shine as Jacksonville is not very good on defense. In fact, they have only 1 interception all year. Let’s take care of the ball and get it into the endzone. Let’s jump on them early and not look back.
Special teams saved the game last Sunday, but not all plays were good. They lost a fumble when the ball touched a Packer player and they fielded a punt deep near their own endzone, giving them poor field position. Punter Daniel Whelan had some booming punts and made a nice recovery after a bad snap to get the ball in position for kicker Brandon McManus to drill the game-winner. Hopefully Whelan isn’t punting much, but we know he is very capable of flipping the field. These mental mistakes in the return game need to be addressed and I’m sure they were throughout the week.
The Packers are 5-2 all-time vs Jacksonville. The Jaguars won in 2004 and 2008, the former in Green Bay, the latter in Jacksonville. Most of the games have been competitive. The Packers played their season opener in Jacksonville in 2021, but it was vs the Saints as New Orleans was experiencing a hurricane and the game had to be moved. As for the result, let’s just say the Packers didn’t do all that well.
Jacksonville’s head coach is a familiar name for many Packer fans. Doug Pederson was a former backup QB who won a Super Bowl in Green Bay and coached the Philadelphia Eagles when they won the Super Bowl. The Jaguars made the playoffs in his first year coaching the team, and they even won a playoff game, but they missed out last year, and he isn’t off to a great start this year. There have been rumors that he is on the hot seat. They need to start being competitive and win games. Let’s not have this be the week where he turns it around.
It should be a nice day in Jacksonville, and the stadium will almost certainly be packed, as they often are when Green Bay makes a visit anywhere. Let’s have a great afternoon of football and keep this winning streak going.
Go Pack Go!
@DieHardPackersFan #DHPF #GregGoshaw @gg901
