Falcons in London to take on Jaguars

Maybe the Jacksonville Jaguars can jump-start their lackluster offense outside of the Sunshine State.

After scoring nine and 17 points in consecutive home losses to the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans, respectively, the Jaguars headed across the pond for back-to-back games in London.

The Jaguars (1-2) are designated as the home team at Wembley Stadium on Sunday, when they’ll face the Atlanta Falcons (2-1). After that, they’ll move across town and play as the visitors the following weekend at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where the Buffalo Bills will be considered the hosts.

The Falcons-Jaguars matchup is the first of five international NFL games in 2023, and the first of three in London.

Given how poorly the Jags performed at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville the past two weeks, they were eager to get away and possibly find better results roughly 4,300 miles from home.

“It’s a chance for us to reset a little bit and regroup to try to get back on track,” Jaguars coach Doug Pederson said. “We’re doing everything together as one of those bonding types of experiences as a football team and as coaches.”

Jacksonville’s offense definitely needs help connecting. The unit has been mostly a mess since the Jaguars rallied to beat the Indianapolis Colts to open the season.

The Jaguars allowed four sacks against the Chiefs, fumbled three times and finished 4-of-14 on third- and fourthdown conversions. They were equally sloppy in last week’s AFC South Division game against the winless Texans, with Calvin Ridley dropping two passes that would have been touchdowns, Trevor Lawrence throwing an interception and Jamal Agnew fumbling.

“There’s no sense of panic,” Lawrence said. “I wouldn’t say guys aren’t concerned because that’s not the right word. But we care a lot about what we do, so there is some concern when you don’t play well and you put a lot of work in.”

The Falcons should be concerned after last week’s road trip. They managed 183 yards, including just 44 rushing, and second-year quarterback Desmond Ridder was sacked seven times in a 20-6 loss to the Detroit Lions, who have since improved to 3-1 with Thursday night’s 34-20 win against the Green Bay Packers.

“It’s your job and intent to score every time you get it,” said Arthur Smith, the former Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator in his third season as Atlanta’s head coach. “So if something’s not working, you have to continue to look for solutions and things you can do better.”

It will be an early start for fans back home, with kickoff at 9:30 a.m., and the game will be shown on ESPN Plus, a streaming service, instead of network or cable television.

Flying across the Atlantic is nothing new for the Jaguars, who have played a home game in London every year since 2013 (except during the pandemicaffected 2020 season), and they are 4-5 overseas, with eight of those games at Wembley. This, however, will be the first time an NFL team plays consecutive games overseas.