JACKSONVILLE – This is a big ask at an important, difficult time. A difficult prime time.
The Jaguars need a victory on Monday Night Football to avoid an unexpected, disappointing 0-3 start to the 2024 regular season. That makes this game really important.
The opponent is what makes it difficult.
That’s because the opponent is the Buffalo Bills, a team that features one of the NFL’s best two or three quarterbacks – the versatile, tough Josh Allen – and a team that has been one of the AFC’s best for the last half decade.
Few will favor the Jaguars. The Bills are at home in prime time, and – despite an offseason transitioning many positions – have won their first two regular-season games impressively. They are running well. Allen is elite. The defensive front is really good. Some observers questioned before the season if the Bills should be favored to win a fifth consecutive AFC East title. Ferfewer question that now.
But the biggest reason few will favor the Jaguars Monday is they have not played to expectations in the season’s first two games. They lost a fourteen-point lead in Week 1 before losing to the Miami Dolphins, 20-17, on a 52-yard field goal on the final play. The rallied from a 16-3 deficit in Week 2 before losing 18-13 to the Cleveland Browns – a home opener in which the offense struggled enough that quarterback Trevor Lawrence said following the game, “We suck right now.”
That’s a difficult way to enter a big early-season game against an NFL power. And it’s a big ask for the Jaguars to win. But they’re capable of winning. And they need to win.
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