Welcome to the Week 7 edition of the Midnight Mailbag! I’ll be asking for your lingering questions after each Jaguars game on 1010XL’s Facebook and X/Twitter pages, with the submission deadline set for 11:59 p.m. the same day.
Here were your questions following Jacksonville’s 32-16 win over the New England Patriots.
From Fetta — Is Doug starting to call more plays because he knows he’s on the hot seat, or has Press Taylor miraculously been calling decent plays
I assume Taylor is continuing to call plays for Jacksonville’s offense. To me, the answer to “who’s calling plays?” doesn’t really matter — Pederson is responsible for the offense regardless. Ask yourself “how productive is Jacksonville’s offense?” rather focusing on “how does Jacksonville’s offensive productivity correlate to the playcaller?”
From Chris Guerrieri — Good morning; I may have missed it, but did you talk about Peterson not going for the FG that would have put the Jags up three scores? When the Pats marched downfield, everyone where I was at was like here we go again. Why does he hate putting points on the board?
It certainly felt like déjà vu of the Week 5 Colts win when the Jaguars allowed a late touchdown on Sunday. Jacksonville lucked out when New England missed its two-point conversion attempt, which would have made it a one-score game. Pederson’s decision to go for it on 4th-and-1 (rather than kick a chip-in field goal to lead by three scores) on the previous drive was a poor one. I assume he wanted to keep momentum and give his players a morale boost. Still, it was an inexcusable coaching decision. I will say that Pederson at least equalled it out by getting a two-point conversion earlier in the game after the Patriots committed a penalty to give the Jaguars a chance at the 1-yard line. Not every coach would take that opportunity.
Since we only got two questions for this week’s mailbag — wins, am I right — I came up with a few of my own.
Was Sunday the best performance of Trevor Lawrence’s career?
Probably not. I’m still partial to the 2022 Ravens game, personally. But according to total Expected Points Added, it was indeed the best game of Lawrence’s NFL career. He completed 15 of 20 passes for 193 yards and 1 touchdown with 13 yards on the ground. Lawrence was ruthlessly efficient, and so was Jacksonville’s running game, which churned out 171 yards and 2 scores. As Lawrence said after the game: “That’s how you play complementary football.”
Will Tank Bigsby be the starting running back going forward?
Doubtful. Or in Doug Pederson’s words: “I don’t think so. I’m not a believer where – I should say I’m a believer where injury doesn’t replace your position, right? I think you have to have a fair competition. For us, we’re blessed to have two really good running backs right now. When Etienne comes back, he’s just as explosive, just as good, just as powerful, and it’s still his job. But Tank has done some really good things. Obviously, we’re going to continue to find ways to put the ball in his hands too because he’s a little different runner than Etienne is.”
How good is Brian Thomas Jr.?
Extremely. According to The 33rd Team, he’s just the fifth receiver since 2000 to record 480-plus receiving yards and 4-plus receiving touchdowns in his first seven NFL games. Jacksonville’s first round rookie receiver is looking better than anyone could’ve hoped.