The Jacksonville Jaguars had no problem dispatching the Baltimore Ravens in Week 3, and earned a dominant 44-7 victory in London.
3 winners and 3 losers in the Jaguars’ 44-7 demolition of the Ravens in London
Blake Bortles was excellent, while Joe Flacco had the worst day of his career.
Photo by Matthew Lewis/Getty Images
It was the fifth game in London for the Jaguars and the third consecutive win for the team in games played overseas. But it was Baltimore’s first trip and one it’ll try to quickly forget and hope not many watching the Yahoo streaming broadcast bring up again.
Jacksonville dominated every aspect, forcing a three-and-out on the Ravens’ first four possessions en route to 23-0 lead at halftime. The Jaguars never let off the gas and even pulled out a fake punt play late in the third quarter despite already building a 37-0 lead at that point.
Negatives for the Jaguars and positives for the Ravens were few and far between Sunday morning. But three stood out as winners in the blowout, while three didn’t have a good time.
WINNERS
After the first two games of the 2017 season, Lewis had zero receptions. In the last two seasons combined, he had three touchdowns. But he was a star in London, finishing with four receptions, 62 yards and the first three-touchdown game of his career.
Its only the third time a Jaguars receiver has finished with three touchdowns in a game, joining Jimmy Smith who did it in 2000 and Allen Robinson who did it in 2015.
Maybe the best part of the big game for Lewis was that former Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew totally called it. Before the game he picked the Jaguars to win and his entire reasoning was “Marcedes Lewis.”
When Yahoo praised him for his soothsaying, Jones-Drew’s face said it all.
Listen to Jones-Drew for all your fantasy advice, folks.
The whole Jaguars defense
The Jaguars’ coveted pair of cornerbacks, Jalen Ramsey and A.J. Bouye, each had an interception and locked down the Ravens receivers. The Jaguars’ pass rush harassed Flacco all day. The linebackers ate up anybody who ran across the middle of the field.
It was basically a perfect day for the Jacksonville defense.
Calais Campbell was a star again for the Jaguars with another sack added to his season total and a forced fumble that was nearly returned for a touchdown by Telvin Smith.
If you guessed that Bortles would’ve left the game early, you probably wouldn’t have thought he’d leave with four touchdowns, no interceptions, and a 44-point lead. The embattled quarterback had arguably the best day of his career.
His 125.5 passer rating is the second-best in his NFL career.
It was a dominant enough showing that Chad Henne got to come in and throw a pass in a regular-season game for the first time in three years. If Bortles plays even close to that level for the rest of the year, Henne probably won’t see the field again.
LOSERS
It took about 22 minutes of regulation clock before the Ravens quarterback finally threw a pass that was caught. The problem is that it was Bouye who pulled it in for an interception. Four minutes later — with about four minutes left in the half — he finally completed a pass to his own team.
Flacco finished the game with a grand total of 28 yards, no touchdowns, and two interceptions. His 12.0 passer rating is the worst game of his career.
He was eventually benched in the fourth quarter in favor of Ryan Mallett, who moved the ball a little better, although it was against a cruising Jaguars defense mostly consisting of backups. Mallett picked up a garbage-time touchdown in the final minutes to break the shut out.
The whole Ravens defense
The Jaguars offense did whatever it wanted, whenever it wanted, and holding penalties were really the only thing that stopped even more points from going up on the board. The team eclipsed 400 yards of total offense and Bortles looked unstoppable.
That’s a stunning 180 from the defensive performances the Ravens showed to start the season with back-to-back games with five forced turnovers.
It’s back to the drawing board for the Ravens, who will need a much better defensive performance against the Steelers next week.
Donald Trump
During a rally in Huntsville, Ala., on Friday, Trump took aim at the NFL and said any owner who sees a player protesting should “get that son of a bitch off the field.” Those comments appear to have backfired.
Players throughout the league spoke against the comments and the kneeling protest started by Colin Kaepernick was given a new surge. The effects were seen early Sunday morning when several players from both the Jaguars and Ravens kneeled on the sideline.
There are 13 more games on the Sunday slate and it’s likely to be a day filled with many player protests.
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