Recap: Jaguars come back, beat Bengals 26-21

The Jacksonville Jaguars picked up their first win of the preseason on Sunday with a 26-21 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. Only problem is, it doesn’t feel like a win.

Although the comeback was incredible, the Jaguars’ starters were incredibly lackluster. Cincy’s offense overpowered Jacksonville’s defense throughout the first half. Andy Dalton finished six-for-ten with 77 yards and a touchdown. The Bengals’ quarterbacks spread the ball well against the Jags, connecting with 13 different receivers. The Jaguars’ offense was lackluster in the first half – they only scored three points in that time frame. Their offensive line play was atrocious, especially Luke Joeckel. He looked lost at left guard and got trampled repeatedly. Here’s a video of one of them:

That man was the #2 pick in 2013. You certainly couldn’t tell by his performance last night. Left tackle Kelvin Beachum was rusty in his return from injury, raising even more questions about the team’s offensive line. Blake Bortles summed up the first half perfectly in this interview:

The Jags didn’t really get it in gear until the second half. They scored a touchdown in the third quarter and two of them in the fourth. Chad Henne wasn’t as accurate as Blake Bortles was, but threw a TD to Neal Sterling and helped lead the Jaguars’ comeback.

The Jags’ rushing attack was fairly decent after a slow start. Chris Ivory only ran for four yards on four attempts. However, TJ Yeldon averaged nearly seven yards per carry, and Denard Robinson had six yards per carry as well. The team was led in rushing yards by Joe Banyard (who I’ll get to later). Receiving wise, the team wasn’t all that impressive. Only one receiver (Sterling) had more than 30 yards. To be fair though, that’s what happens when passes are completed only 17 times.

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Defensively, the Jaguars really stepped up late in the game. They ended up with five sacks, most of which came from backups. After they scored the eventual game-winning touchdown in the fourth quarter, the defense shut Cincinnati down in field goal range and forced the Bengals to punt. Linebacker Telvin Smith led the team in tackles (again) with six. He also had a tackle for a loss. However, one certain defensive player played a huge role in the Jags securing the victory.

Game MVP: Hayes Pullard III

Pullard’s three tackles were decent, but it was his pick-six that really made him stand out in this game. He intercepted a Joe Licata pass with eight minutes left in the game and took it 62 yards to the house. That score would end up being enough for the Jaguars to pick up the W.

He also caught a pass for a touchdown on offense, but it didn’t stand since he forgot to report as eligible. You can watch both in this video provided by the NFL’s Twitter page:

Honorable mention goes to Joe Banyard, who led the team in rushing yards with 54 and scored a touchdown. On a team that’s deep at the running back position, Banyard made a case to make the roster with his play.

Although the Jaguars’ late-game comeback was impressive, it has been overshadowed by the poor play of the starters. Time will tell if this is what’s in store for Jags fans or if it was just a rough night for the first-stringers.

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