The Philadelphia Eagles head across the pond to take on the Jacksonville Jaguars in London this weekend. The flight to the United Kingdom isn’t the only upheaval the Birds are experiencing with Lane Johnson retiring and Cam Jurgens being traded.
To preview this Week 5 matchup, I contacted our opponents at Big Cat Country. The kind Gus Logo kindly took the time to answer my questions about this upcoming battle. Let’s see the answers.
[For my answers to Gus’s questions about the Eagles, check out BCC.]
1 – The Jags are 16-5 in the Liam Coen era. What has he done to turn this team around since Super Bowl LII champion Doug Pederson was fired?
When Coen was hired, the thought in Jacksonville was, “He looks like he has the goods as a playcaller. But could he also be a culture-setter?”
After 18 months, the answer is a resounding yes.
Look no further than Jacksonville’s latest victory: a gritty five-point win at Cincinnati. The Bengals may not be juggernauts, but the last time the Jaguars played in their stadium (Week 2 last season), Jake Browning led a stunning second-half comeback to steal the dub. “It’s not easy to win this league,” Coen said in the locker room after securing redemption last week. “Do we have to clean sh*t up? Absolutely. But guess what? Our culture prevailed. Our f*cking toughness prevailed… The last time we were in this locker room, in a similar type situation, it wasn’t a great feeling, right? Talk about growth. Talk about us as a unit, us as an organization, what the f*ck we are building. That’s what I’m what I’m.
In the first half of last season, the Coen experience was mostly encouraging, but there were still ups and downs. Then the Jaguars allowed another AFC backup quarterback to complete a second-half comeback, this time Davis Mills in Houston in Week 10. Coen talked a whole bunch about responding to adversity, so after Jacksonville collapsed against a division opponent, everyone in town wondered how the Jaguars would respond.
They rattled off 8 straight wins to clinch the division and host a playoff game. They came up short against Josh Allen’s Bills in the Wild Card Round, but that loss must have left a terrible taste in their mouth, as they are the NFL’s second best team (behind only the 49ers) in terms of point differential, DVOA, and FPI by ESPN this season. We are no longer surprised.
The relationship between Coen and Trevor Lawrence is as strong as we could hope for. They look like one of the best playcaller/quarterback duos in the league; one that can carry a team to the playoffs. And Coen has done an outstanding job of developing his characters; expect defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile to be the head coach for the next year or two. But the connection between Coen and his entire football team turned out better than we ever imagined in Duval County. The greatest leaders in franchise history are him and Tom Coughlin, full stop. I suppose that’s a bit self-serving about Jacksonville’s poor coaching history, but you get my point. Coen isn’t just another playcalling wiz who used to work with Sean McVay. He is one of the best all-around coaches in the NFL today.
2 – Anthony Campanile’s defense has allowed the second fewest points in the NFL this season. What is so great about that unit?
Everyone wants to talk about offenses going with heavier personnel and under-center formations and bunched alignments and pulling guards and other schematic tweaks, all to boost efficiency against defenses with 2-high safety structures molded by Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan to stop out of zone and explosive passes out of 3-WR sets.
So I’m excited to talk about Jacksonville’s run defense, which Campanile has fixed into an impenetrable fortress. The Jaguars have been great against the run for years, largely thanks to their Big 4. Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker have a case as the best run-stuffing EDGE duo in the league; they contain perimeter and funnel runs inside to nose tackle DaVon Hamilton and linebacker Foye Oluokun, who are the poster children of “players who will get more love in a bigger market.” Those four players are pillars of the run defense, and the other front seven defenders like Arik Armstead, Matt Dickerson, Danny Striggow, Dennis Gardeck, and Ventrell Miller have all balled out recently.
Years ago, Jacksonville’s defensive motto was, “Stop the run, then we can have fun.” If they stop the run on early downs, they can have fun on late downs by pinning their ears back and rushing the opposing quarterback. The Jaguars have a great run defense that has forced opponents into 3rd and long situations, but they don’t have enough horses to consistently get the offense off the field.
Under Campanile, their defensive philosophy was to “Stop the run, limit explosives, and make takeaways.” The stable is already stocked. With the collection of defenders listed above, along with a revamped secondary that suddenly features a coverage-tilting cornerback in Travis Hunter, the Jaguars have the horses. Their defense hasn’t allowed a rusher to reach 75 yards on the ground in 22 games (the team’s fourth-best streak during the Super Bowl). They lead in interceptions (28) and tied for first in takeaways (39) since the start of last season, with a takeaway in 10 straight games. They could do a better job limiting explosive passes, but DANG, do they check the other two boxes that strongly.
Although Campanile has more talent at his disposal than previous Jaguars defenders, he deserves credit for taking the run defense from “very good” to “historically good” and especially for proving that turnovers aren’t entirely dependent on luck. These can really be done with good instruction and godly playing. When opposing offenses go into 3rd-and-long situations, Campanile leans into his coaching roots by deploying Fangio-like coverage structures with Flores-like pressure packages. He out-game-planned most of the offensive coordinators he faced. Like Coen, he’s been as good a playcaller AND culture builder as we’ve come to expect. Remember the name.
3 – The Eagles and Jags don’t play very often. Who are some of the under-the-radar players we should keep an eye on?
I will offer one name on each side of the ball.
On offense, keep an eye on rookie receiver Josh Cameron. He’s had a remarkable offseason, from rookie minicamp to training camp to the preseason, and now — despite what appears to be a strong starting trio of Jaguars wideouts — his blocking prowess and strong hands have earned him a part-time role in the regular season. The Baylor product played 19, 10, 23, and 22 snaps in the first month. Brian Thomas Jr. is losing to him. Brian Thomas Jr.! The man we believe is Diet Randy! But Cameron made the most of his playing time, as he delivered tough run blocks and goofy catches in the redzone. The man can play some football.
On defense, keep an eye on second-year safety Rayuan Lane III. The Navy man will be thrust into action after Eric Murray (concussion) and Caleb Ransaw (knee) collided last week. Ransaw played 33, 7, and 19 defensive snaps in the first three weeks as the No. 1 safety. 3 by Jacksonville, so with him now on injured reserve, Lane will at least deal with a role in dime personnel packages. But with Murray in danger of missing Week 5 after missing Wednesday’s practice, Lane will likely be in line to start against Philadelphia. He fell to the 200th pick last year because he’s not a high-caliber athlete (by NFL standards), but as he showed last week when he made the game-clinching tackle on 4th down… the guy can play some football.
4 – What is the biggest match in the Jags’ favor and the biggest match against them?
The biggest matchup that favors the Jaguars is their passing game against the Eagles’ middle-of-the-field defenders. I certainly wouldn’t have said that a month ago, but now that Cooper DeJean is on the #washed watch and Zack Baun and Jihaad Campbell are injured, I expect Lawrence to continue to find success between the hashes. According to Sports Info Solutions, he leads the NFL in passer rating (138.6) and adjusted net yards per attempt (11.1) on such throws. The Jaguars are at their best when Parker Washington and Jakobi Meyers and Brenton Strange feast on inbound routes. Expect to see a lot of that on Sunday morning against a suddenly weak Eagles defense.
The biggest matchup favoring the Eagles is defensive tackles Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis against interior linemen Emmanuel Pregnon, Robert Hainsey, and Ezra Cleveland. Between the Patriots and Bengals, the Jaguars have battled some elite defensive tackles over the past two games, but really, their entire offensive line is the first potential Achilles’ heel in how far the Jaguars can go in the postseason run. Lawrence’s coaching, playcalling and pocket management maximized a group of names listed in the bottom five of most preseason OL rankings. This unit is in the 2025 Seahawks mold of “Can they just be good enough?” Maybe Carter and Davis will show it isn’t.
5 – Who won this game and why? With the Eagles currently listed as 6.5-point underdogs on a neutral field, what’s your score prediction?
Most will say the Jaguars will win because the Eagles are banged up. But I already predicted a Jaguars win when the schedule was released in May. Losing Jeff Stoutland and AJ Brown and Jaelan Phillips in an offseason seems like a big deal, and I certainly don’t expect Jalen Hurts to start attacking the middle of the field out of nowhere. I believe Jacksonville’s run defense is as equipped as any to limit Saquon Barkley, and the advantage provided by Trevor Lawrence/Liam Coen somewhat offset Philadelphia’s advantage in overall roster talent. So I didn’t need to change my original score prediction to reflect all the Eagles’ absences. Jaguars 34, Eagles 21.
[BLG Note: The Eagles are now 7.5-point underdogs but were listed at 6.5 at the time of me posing this question.]