Jaguars focusing on 3rd-down effort
JACKSONVILLE — Making third down a first priority over the last several weeks has paid off for the Jaguars’ offense.
After the Week 6 loss to the Los Angeles Rams, the Jaguars were 29th on third down, converting only 32.9 percent of their chances (26 of 79).
But the Jaguars went 8 of 14 (57.1 percent) at Indianapolis and 12 of 18 (66.3 percent) against Cincinnati. That contributed to two wins and a play-count advantage of 143-104.
The Jaguars enter Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers ranked 10th on third down (96 of 111, 41.4 percent).
“We’ve made a big emphasis on it lately,” quarterback Blake Bortles said. “We want to make sure our third-down conversion is over 40 percent.”
After practice Thursday, offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett was asked if the third down improvement can be pointed to having more variety in that section of his play-call sheet.
“I think we had a pretty big basket [of plays] already,” Hackett said. “You’re always going back to things that guys are comfortable with, but at the same time, you’re always trying to expand and put some new wrinkles in because you don’t want somebody get a bead on you. You want to be creative, but not so creative that you hurt your guys because you want them to know what you’re trying do.”
The Jaguars are particularly improved in thirdand-medium (4-7 yards to go). Through six games, they were a woeful 26.7 percent (8 of 30), but they went 1 of 2 at the Colts and 6 of 8 against the Bengals to raise that percentage to 37.5.
Punter Brad Nortman ranks tied for 25th in net average (39.7) among those who have more than 15 attempts, but he closed the first half with a 53.5-yard net average at Indianapolis and a 47-yard net average against Cincinnati.
“I think he’s got better as the year’s gone on,” special teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis said. “He’s learning what we’re asking him to do [with directional punting]. The biggest thing, we’ve punted [four] times in the last two games and that’s going punter.”
Nortman has averaged an impressive 4.98 seconds of hang time on his last four punts.
“I like how I’m hitting the ball, we’re covering them and we’ve hit a nice rhythm,” Nortman said.
The Jaguars juggled their special teams personnel after the preseason, picking up Donald Payne (three tackles) and James O’Shaughnessy (two tackles) off waivers.
“It’s bound to happen that you have some young guys on special teams and they go exponentially throughout the season,” Nortman said. “At this point, they’re comfortable with the speed of the game and they get to recognize the looks. We’re starting to turn a corner in a lot of different ways.” to help any