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Jacksonville Jaguars seek legitimacy: Win total examined for 2014 season

John Benson

by John Benson in News

Updated Jan 17, 2018 · 9:40 AM PST

The Jacksonville Jaguars (4-12) surprised everyone this May when the team selected Blake Bortles with its No. 1 pick and thus ended the Blaine Gabbert experiment. However, unless management starts drafting better (we’re looking at you, Justin Blackmon), the results could be the same.

In looking at the statistics, the Jaguars were atrocious ranking 22nd in passing and 31st in running the ball. That’s why they followed up the Bortles pick with wide receivers Marqise Lee in the second round and Allen Robinson in the third round. The team is hoping incoming free agent Toby Gerhart can help replace the outgoing Maurice Jones-Drew.

As far as the defense was concerned, well, that squad was also bad ranking only 26th against the pass and 29th against the run.

For the 2014 season, the Jaguars face five playoff teams with an overall schedule featuring opponents boasting a .453 winning percentage last year (29th easiest in the league). Furthermore, the Jaguars will be playing two sets of back-to-back road games.

Oddsmakers have the Jaguars posted at 4.5 for o/u wins with an over payout of -150. Sure, the Jaguars have more firepower this year on offense, but the squad is young and the defense is still leaky. That said, it may be time to man-up and pick an NFL team to win four games or less.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jacksonville Jaguars: The Jaguars have the lowest win total projection in the NFL for 2014 and despite Jacksonville winning four games last season, the Jaguars had the worst point differential in the NFL at -202. Three wins for Jacksonville came within this division and with the Titans and Texans starting over with new coaching staffs, there may be an opportunity for the Jaguars to move up. Jacksonville rolled the dice with Blake Bortles as its top draft pick to inherit the quarterback position, but it is not yet clear if Jacksonville will proceed with the rookie in 2014 or if they will give him some time to develop. Jacksonville obviously had many other problem areas last season, but quarterback has been a glaring area of mistakes and limited production in recent seasons. Jacksonville will actually have a somewhat challenging schedule relative to its division foes as they play four road games against 2013 playoff teams and the Jaguars will surrender a home game to play in London. The Jaguars open the season with road games in three of the first four weeks with three of the first four games are also coming against 2013 playoff teams so a strong start to the season seems unlikely.

 

With the tough early schedule, it might be easy for Jacksonville to slip into a another year of rebuilding and go with Bortles to gain experience for 2015 as contending for the postseason seems like a long shot this season. Jacksonville also has tough road games at Cincinnati and at Baltimore late in the season and they play Tennessee and Houston three times in the final four weeks of the season, negating to chance to catch those division foes early in their transition seasons. Finishing in third place in the division last season also means playing San Diego and Miami, two quality teams that appear far ahead of the Jaguars and far ahead of the fourth place draw that Houston will get in 2014. All in all, the Jaguars were dealt arguably the toughest schedule in the AFC South and it could be another challenging season.

 

Jacksonville Jaguars 2014 Schedule Numbers:

2014 Opponents Win Percentage in 2013: .453 (29/32)

Games vs. 2013 Playoff Teams: 5 (one home, four away)

Miles Traveled for 9 road/neutral games: 12,125 (includes London)

Back-to-Back road game sets: 2

Primetime Games: 1 (1 Thursday)

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