The Jaguars have not outgained anybody since Week 1 and they are 3-1

Jacksonville 22, Cincinnati 17, and Cincinnati gained a hundred and fourteen more yards than Jacksonville did.

That is the third Sunday in a row the Jaguars have been outgained and the second in a row they have won anyway. Denver had them by 124 and beat them. New England had them by two and lost by twenty-nine. Cincinnati had them by 114 and lost by five.

They are 3-1, and they have gained more yards than the other team once all year.

One game out of four this team has moved the ball better than the other one. It was the opener, against Cleveland, and they won it by twenty-four.

Everything since has been somebody else’s fault.

Where the five points came from

Burrow was 39 of 54 for 428 yards. One touchdown. Two interceptions.

Fifty-four throws is a quarterback being asked to carry a thing, and for most of the afternoon he did. Higgins caught eleven of them for 157, which is more than anybody on either side, and sixty-two more than Strange had for Jacksonville. Cincinnati’s top two receivers caught twenty-two balls between them.

None of that is on the scoreboard.

Two interceptions and two sacks are, and that is the fourth week running the Jaguars have won or lost on what the other quarterback did rather than on what theirs did.

Lawrence was 18 of 23 for 227, one and none.

So for the second Sunday in a row the losing quarterback threw for more than the winning one. Maye had Lawrence by seventeen a week ago. Burrow had him by two hundred and one, on thirty-one more attempts.

The kicker had nine of the twenty-two

Little from 55 in the first. From 28 in the second. From 54 in the third.

Three kicks, nine points, in a game decided by five.

Take the two long ones away and Jacksonville loses. That is not a knock on him, it is the point: a 3-1 team is leaning on a man who does not play a down of offence.

The other margin is in two words. Rodriguez ran in from 25 in the fourth and the two-point try failed, and the scoring summary says only “pass failed.” That is the difference between 23-17 and 22-17, and on a different afternoon it is the difference between winning and overtime.

What the other columns rule out

The usual explanations are not available, and they have not been available for three weeks.

Penalties ran against Jacksonville. Thirteen flags to eleven, 125 yards to 108. Twenty-four flags and 233 yards between them, and the team that took two more and seventeen worse is the team that won.

Possession ran against them too. Cincinnati held it 30:54 to 29:06. A minute and forty-eight seconds.

So the Jaguars were outgained by 114, out-possessed, and more penalised, and they are driving home 3-1.

A team cannot be coached into that and it cannot be coached out of it.

The part that is actually good

Tuten carried 17 times for 73, long of 20. Rodriguez carried six for 35. That is 108 on the ground between the two of them and it led the field, which tells you what kind of afternoon it was for everybody.

Thomas caught the seven-yarder from Lawrence with 26 seconds left in the half, and Jacksonville went to the break up 13-3 having scored on each of its last two possessions. That ten-point cushion is the game. Gesicki got it back to 13-10 in the third and it never got closer than that until Burrow walked one in from a yard at the end.

Scoring twice before a half ends is a real thing and this team has now done it in three of four weeks.

Sunday

Philadelphia, 9:30 in the morning Eastern, on FOX30 and NFL Network, radio on 1010XL, 92.5 FM and 99.9 FM. Philadelphia is 2-2.

Then the bye. The schedule runs week 1 to week 18 and there is no week 7 on it.

Two teams have now gained more yards than the Jacksonville Jaguars and gone home unhappy about it. The third did it by 124 and won. The Eagles will have read all four box scores and they will have noticed which one of those three is the pattern and which is the exception.