Battered Jaguars will get shot at Broncos rookie quarterback

The Jacksonville Jaguars are back at EverBank Field on Sunday, hosting the Denver Broncos. As we saw earlier the Jaguars are banged up right now at some key spots, most notably with injuries to wide receiver Allen Hurns and running back Chris Ivory, both of which will be out on Sunday. The other notable injuries are Jared Odrick, who’s been banged up a lot this season, and tight end Julius Thomas. The national story heading in though is that rookie quarterback Paxton Lynch is going to get the start for the Broncos, as Trevor Siemian is injured.

Lynch has played in just two games this season, completing 62.7 percent of his passes for just under 400 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. He only officially started one game, against the Atlanta Falcons which the Broncos lost 23-16, but he played the majority of the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 4, a game the Broncos won 27-7. Though, quarterback play from the Broncos this season has left a lot to be desired, Lynch is supposed to be their guy going forward and has a big test Sunday against the Jaguars.

I’m sure a lot of people read that “big test” line and laughed to themselves, but we have to give credit it where it’s due, and the Jaguars defense has been pretty good this season. They’ve done a good job limited teams the past few weeks, especially since the debacle against the Tennessee Titans, but end up breaking later in the game while the offense spins it’s wheels and fails to score.

That’s going to be the big key Sunday, especially with Ivory already ruled out. The running back position for the Jaguars hasn’t done much, but when it’s been effective and when the offense has been good, it’s been when Ivory has been at the heart of it. We saw last week against the Buffalo Bills, once he left the game the rest of the offense seemed to go with him.

Now that he’s officially out, the Jaguars backs are basically limited to a banged up T.J. Yeldon, who hasn’t been to effective when healthy, Denard Robinson and Corey Grant. It’s going to be another game where the Jaguars won’t need quarterback Blake Bortles to just play “not bad”, but actually good. He’s going to need to have a big game for the Jaguars to pull the upset.