Albert Breer on Jaguars’ Win Over Ravens and Surprising Starting QB in Week 9

Maybe more people need to start paying closer attention to this Jaguars team. Welcome back to the Suburban Report for Friday, November the 6th. Week 9 is now underway, and that means we are approaching the midpoint of the NFL season. And Week 9 kicked off on Thursday night. With a sloppy forgettable mess of a 33 to 10 Jaguars win unless you're a Jacksonville fan because this one probably gave you more affirmation that your team is what you thought they were even if they were playing against a team with an undrafted rookie free agent making his first start. at quarterback. To me, looking at Jacksonville, this is a team that continues to check boxes, that continues to take care of business, that continues to show us exactly who they are, even if you aren't paying attention. And again, it wasn't the opponent so much here. If we had seen a more full version of the Ravens, obviously we probably would have learned a little bit more. It was how efficiently, how coldly. They took the Ravens apart. They made this game non-competitive. And this is the way it's been for the Jaguars for an extended period of time now. Now, if you take that playoff loss to Buffalo out, which, you know, of course, that's part of the equation. That was a very competitive game. And you just drill down on the regular season. They are 15 and three in their last 18 games. The Jaguars are. And listen to some of these scores over that stretch. 35 to 6, 25 to 3. 48-20, 34-20, 41-7, 34-10, 35-6, 42-17, and again last night, 33-10. That is nine of the 15 wins over that 18-game stretch. Coming by margins of 14 points or more. And in some cases, it's a lot bigger margin than 14 points. So this isn't just a team that's playing well. This is a team that's beating the crap out of other teams. They've got a style. They've got balance. And I think there are a couple of numbers from last night that really reflect. Who they are and what they're becoming. First of all, zero sacks for the Ravens on Thursday night. Zero sacks. What does that tell you? On a sloppy, rainy night, when it was difficult to handle the ball, when it was difficult to throw the ball, they were on it. Zero sacks, that's an impressive stat. Trevor Lawrence's efficiency, okay? So again, 242 yards in the rain. He had 105 rating. Here's what I thought really was telling about where the Jaguars are. He hit eight different receivers. He only completed 16 passes. He hit eight different receivers. So he's spreading the ball around very effectively. The wet, rainy night, they win the turnover battle 3-1. They have 13 first downs to the Ravens 10 in just about every way. They won this game, and they won this game not just by overwhelming the Ravens, but by playing a cleaner game in inclement conditions. Again, that shows you that this is a team that can travel. It shows you that this is a team that can probably win in the conditions of January. And even if you look at the two losses they've had this year, there was the nail biter against Houston in London, right? And they had been in London for a week, the Jaguars had, and that was against a desperate Houston team that I still think is pretty good. And you go toe to toe and you lose that one at the very end. And then earlier in the year, they lost in Denver by a touchdown. And in that game, the Jaguars at one point held a double-digit lead. They weren't able to hold on to it, but they went into that environment and, again, went toe-to-toe with a really good Broncos team that also only has two losses. So I think we need to take the Jaguars very seriously. If you look at the rest of their schedule, it's not hard to see a path here to 13 wins and potentially the number one seed in the AFC. And so that would mean a bye. That would mean the AFC going through North Florida, which I'm not sure a lot of people forecast, but maybe more people need to start paying closer attention to this Jaguars team. Really, really impressive. As for the flip side of it, and that'll be our second topic for the day. The Ravens come out of this, of course, now at four and five. Um, there is that thought that they could be a seller at the deadline. I don't think that's, that's where they're at. They have a dozen draft picks next year. You know, I don't think they're going to desperately start selling off parts. They do have guys, of course, that would be valuable to other teams, guys like Derrick Henry and Ropont Smith. I still think they view those guys as pieces of their core. Here's the thing. It's not completely over for them either. The Ravens' schedule is manageable going forward, and there is the possibility that, you know, maybe at some point in December they get Lamar Jackson back. If you can tread water until then, and, you know, it'll be a tough road to hoe, no question about it. You're bringing in Jacoby Brissett. I expect that trade to be finalized today or tomorrow, maybe finalized by the time you're watching this. If Brzezek can just steady the ship and you know come in and take the spot that Piniano held last night. And just get them playing level over the next few weeks. I think they can get a few wins. I think they can stay in the race. And, you know, I don't know if they'll really know on Lamar until after he has the surgery and they get a good look at where he's at. But if the possibility exists that he could come back by the end of the year and you have a chance to keep yourself in the race, I think you owe it to yourself. Um, to, to, to, to do what you can to give Lamar every tool that he could possibly have around him. Uh, finally, our third topic for today and going into week nine, and this is, I think indicative of where we've been with the quarterbacks this year. Here's a list of guys who are starting in week nine. We already got Joe Vignano, um, talked about him on Thursday night for the Ravens. We're going to have Gardner Minshew starting for the Cardinals. We're going to have Shedeur Sanders starting for the Browns. We're going to have Joe Milton starting for the Eagles. We're going to have J.J. McCarthy starting for the Giants, Drew Locke starting for the Seahawks, and Carson Wentz starting for the Vikings. That's seven guys I don't think a lot of people would have seen as in position to start games this year for the teams they're playing for, right? Maybe you could have seen J.J. McCarthy starting games for the Vikings, but not for the Giants, right? Joe Vignano's an undrafted free agent. He's probably the one on the list you would say, like, yeah, I could have seen him starting games. Obviously, there's been a rash of injuries at the quarterback position, and Is there anything to take from that? Is there anything you can look at and say, well, and I think the answer is no. Like, I personally think the NFL has done all they can to protect these guys. I think it's just the nature of the game. Thank You know, I did a bigger story on this earlier in the year when Caleb Williams got hurt. And I think there are a number of reasons why this is happening now. And I think a piece of it is the quarterbacks are better athletes. So you're using them as runners more. They're in more scramble situations, and they're less evolved coming out of college, too. you. And so in a lot of cases, they have to go to those, they have to create those sort of scramble situations more often because it's harder for them to play in structure early in their careers. So there are a number of reasons to it, but I thought it was at least notable that going into Week 9, those seven guys, again, Minshew, Mignano, Sanders, Milt, McCarthy, Locke, Wentz are all starting. I don't know if it'll make for the best week of football, but it should make for an interesting weekend of football ahead. Hope you guys enjoyed that. If you got any comments for us, as always, you can leave them down below here on the YouTube page. You can also get to me on my social media, at Albert Breer on Twitter, at Albert R. Breer on Facebook, at Albert Breer on TikTok, and at Albert underscore Breer on Instagram. Appreciate you guys coming out. Have a great weekend. Enjoy the games, and we'll see you Monday.