Good teams win the ugly games, like the Jaguars did

The Jacksonville Jaguars picked up where they left off last season, picking up a 20-15 road win against the New York Giants on Sunday. It wasn’t a pretty game, but you don’t get any extra wins for style points. The Jaguars slopped their way through the game, with stout defense and sometimes anemic offenses and a great special teams play to take home the victory, which is what good football teams do.

I used to say it when the Jaguars we’re getting their asses kicked week in and week out a few years ago, good teams find a way to win and bad teams find a way to lose.

On Sunday, the Jaguars found a way to win.

Jacksonville never trailed against the Giants, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t nerve-wracking moments littered throughout, especially in the second half. The Giants did everything they could to get the ball in Odell Beckham Jr’s hands, using a lot of scheme and rub routes to get him open underneath, but overall he was kept in check. Outside of one run, the Giants rookie running back Saquon Barkley was held in check.

On offense they killed time and ran the ball well, at least until Leonard Fournette got hurt. Then they slogged through seven punts which seemed like they were on their way to finding a way to lose, but the defense, as they’re wont to do, put the team on their pack and carried them home. Yannick Ngakoue, who was living the backfield all day, hurried Eli Manning into a quick throw that got tipped in the air by Abry Jones and was picked off by Myles Jack who wasn’t down all the way to the endzone.

That is what the Jaguars are and that’s how they’re going to win a lot of football games in 2018, just like they did in 2017. They’re going to pull you down into the mud and pummel you into submission.

Good teams win ugly and that’s exactly what the Jaguars did on Sunday.