Jaguars Look to Steady Their Offense Against New England After a Flat Week in Denver

Jacksonville returns home at 1-1 to face New England in a Week 3 matchup between two teams still defining what their seasons will be. The Jaguars split their opening games, beating Cleveland behind a four touchdown performance from Trevor Lawrence and then losing 20-13 in Denver in a game the offense never found rhythm in.

Lawrence completed 17 of 29 passes for 189 yards with no touchdowns and one interception against the Broncos, adding two carries for six yards. The interception came late in the third quarter at the Denver 33 yard line and led directly to a Broncos touchdown, a sequence that swung the game.

New England arrives looking to move above .500 for the first time this season, which makes the game a genuine tossup between teams with similar records and similar uncertainty about their ceilings.

For Jacksonville under head coach Liam Coen, the early season question is consistency. The Cleveland performance showed what the offense is designed to produce. The Denver performance showed what happens when the design does not translate.

The gap between Week 1 and Week 2

A four touchdown game followed by a scoreless passing performance is a wide swing, and the explanations usually involve opponent quality, game script and protection rather than a sudden change in the quarterback.

Denver's defense has been among the league's more difficult units to move the ball against, and playing at altitude compounds the challenge for a visiting offense. A 189 yard passing performance in that setting is not the same data point it would be at home.

Game script matters as well. An offense that falls behind early against a strong defense faces predictable passing situations, which is the environment in which pressure and turnovers occur.

The 20-13 final also indicates the Jacksonville defense kept the game within reach. Losing by a touchdown while the offense produces no passing scores means the other side of the ball performed adequately.

Trevor Lawrence's season

Lawrence entered 2026 off what was arguably his strongest professional season, having helped lead Jacksonville to a productive 2025 campaign. That baseline raised expectations for the current year.

Quarterback evaluation over two games is unreliable, and the range between his two performances illustrates why. What matters through a season is the average and the ability to avoid the interceptions that turn close games.

The Denver interception fits the category that matters most. A turnover in opponent territory converts a potential scoring drive into a possession for the other team and often into points, a swing worth roughly ten points in expected value.

Protection and the running game shape a quarterback's numbers as much as his own play. Jacksonville's ability to stay on schedule on first and second down determines whether Lawrence throws in favorable situations or in obvious ones.

Liam Coen's system

Coen's offensive approach emphasizes play action, motion and a running game that sets up the passing concepts rather than existing alongside them. Systems of that type produce efficient offense when the run threat is credible and struggle when it is not.

That dependency explains the variance between the first two weeks. Against Cleveland the run game held up and the play action concepts worked. Against Denver, a defense that is difficult to run against removed the foundation.

The quarterback room changed this offseason with the acquisition of Quinn Ewers from Miami, a move that added a developmental option behind Lawrence. Backup quarterback depth matters more in the modern schedule than it once did.

Coen's challenge in Week 3 is to produce a version of the offense that works when the run game is not dominant, which is the adaptation every play action system eventually has to make.

What New England brings

New England enters seeking its first record above .500 this season, which means the Patriots have been competitive without being convincing, a profile similar to Jacksonville's.

Games between two teams in that position frequently come down to a small number of plays, and the team that wins tends to be the one that avoids the self inflicted error rather than the one that makes the spectacular play.

Jacksonville's home field is a real if modest advantage. EverBank Stadium in late September is hot, and a team traveling from the Northeast feels it, particularly in the second half.

The Jaguars' home crowd has been inconsistent in recent seasons, tied closely to the team's record. A 1-1 team in September generates a different environment than a contender in December.

The AFC South picture

Division records shape the postseason more than overall records in close years, and Jacksonville's path runs through a division that has been unpredictable. Early nondivisional games like this one determine whether a team can afford a division loss later.

At 1-1, Jacksonville is in a functional position. Reaching 2-1 before divisional play intensifies gives the team margin. Falling to 1-2 puts the Jaguars in the group that spends October chasing.

Florida's three NFL teams have started slowly as a group, with Miami at 0-2 and Tampa Bay also winless through two games. Jacksonville's single win makes it the state's most successful professional football team through two weeks.

That collective start has made the state's college programs the more prominent story in September, an inversion that Florida sports fans notice each time it occurs.

What Jacksonville needs Sunday

Establishing the run early is the clearest requirement. Coen's system depends on it, and a Jacksonville offense that reaches the second quarter with a functional ground game will look substantially different from the one that played in Denver.

Protecting the football is the second. The single interception in Denver was the difference in a seven point game, and a clean game from the quarterback position usually produces a win in a matchup this even.

Third down defense is the third. Jacksonville's defense held Denver to 20 points, which is a winning performance, and repeating it against New England should be sufficient if the offense produces normally.

Special teams and field position round out the list. In games decided by a possession, the difference between starting drives at the 20 and at the 35 accumulates across a full afternoon.

The longer season

The 17 game schedule rewards teams that avoid extended slumps more than it rewards teams that peak. A team that wins consistently at a modest rate through October and November is usually in playoff position.

Jacksonville's roster has enough talent at the skill positions to produce that consistency if the offensive line holds up and if the defense continues performing at the level it showed in Denver.

Injuries will determine much of it, as they do every season. Depth at offensive line and in the secondary is the difference between a team that absorbs an injury and one that unravels after it.

For the moment, the Jaguars are exactly what their record says: a team that has shown both a high and a low version of itself and that will define its season by which one appears more often.

EverBank Stadium and the franchise's future

Jacksonville's stadium is undergoing a major renovation project financed jointly by the team and the city, a deal that keeps the franchise in Jacksonville under a long term commitment and that reshapes the venue substantially.

Stadium arrangements matter in Jacksonville more than in most NFL markets. The franchise operates in the league's smallest media market, and questions about long term viability have followed the team since its 1995 expansion debut.

The renovation is intended to address that by improving the game day experience and by making the venue competitive for events beyond football, including college games, concerts and potentially international soccer.

During construction, the team's home arrangements shift, which introduces logistical complications for scheduling and for season ticket holders. Those disruptions are the near term cost of the long term commitment.

The market's stake in a winning team

Jacksonville is Florida's largest city by land area and among its largest by population, and the Jaguars are its only major professional franchise. That gives the team an outsized role in the city's identity and in its national profile.

Attendance and local enthusiasm track performance closely, as in most markets, but the effect is amplified where there is no alternative professional team to absorb attention during a down year.

Economic effects run through hospitality, particularly for the annual Georgia versus Florida college game and for Jaguars home dates that draw visitors from South Georgia and North Florida.

A winning season also affects the franchise's ability to attract free agents, since players weigh organizational stability and competitive prospects alongside compensation. Sustained success is self reinforcing in that respect.

The AFC South as a division

The AFC South has been among the league's less stable divisions, with the title changing hands frequently and with no franchise establishing the kind of sustained dominance seen in other divisions.

That instability cuts both ways for Jacksonville. It means a division title is attainable in most seasons. It also means the Jaguars cannot count on any opponent being weak, since teams turn over quickly.

Division games carry disproportionate weight. Each team plays its division opponents twice, meaning six of 17 games are within the division, and head to head records break ties for playoff seeding.

Jacksonville's early nondivisional schedule therefore functions as a buffer. Wins banked now create margin for the divisional games that decide the standings in December.

What is next

Sunday's inactives will clarify the availability questions from the practice week. Offensive line health in particular determines how Coen can call the game.

A win moves Jacksonville to 2-1 and into the group of AFC teams with a workable start. A loss drops the team to 1-2 with divisional games arriving.

Lawrence's statistical line will draw the attention, but the more informative number is Jacksonville's yards per carry. In this offense, that figure predicts the passing production rather than the other way around.

Kickoff is at EverBank Stadium, and for a franchise that has spent years searching for consistency, a routine win against a comparable opponent would be its own kind of progress.