Jaguars vs. Bills: Winners and losers from Week 5

Holy cow, what a win.

The Jacksonville Jaguars will leave London 2-0 after a 25-20 victory over the Buffalo Bills.

All three phases showed up and helped propel the Jags over arguably one of the best teams in the NFL, and the Jungle Cats will return to America on a two-game win streak with a chance to sweep the Indianapolis Colts next weekend. Things, at this point, are looking up.

Here are your winners and losers from a signature win overseas.

WINNERS:

Trevor Lawrence

Trevor Lawrence might have just had his best regular season game as a Jaguar. The Jaguars’ offense has been sputtering as of late, but when the team needed it the most, Lawrence stepped up and delivered.

He finished his day 25-37 for 315 yards and one touchdown pass. He also was second on the team in rushing with 31 yards.

The two fumbles aside — hardly Lawrence’s fault — the quarterback that was promised did exactly what everyone knows he can do. Lawrence’s pass to Calvin Ridley on third down late in the fourth quarter was a throw not many quarterbacks can make and a bow atop an excellent game from the third-year QB.

While it was a good day for the offense overall, Lawrence stood a head taller than anybody else. These are the types of games that jumpstart a season.

The offense

Putting up 25 points is not necessarily always a winning strategy, but it sure felt good to see. The Jags’ offense was going up against arguably the best defensive unit in football, and outplayed the Bills for large portions of Sunday’s game. That being said, there are plenty of gold stars to be handed out on offense outside of Lawrence.

Travis Etienne finished his day with 136 yards rushing and a pair of scores. He totaled 180 scrimmage yards, which is a new career high. His touchdown with just under three minutes to play sealed the game.

Calvin Ridley caught seven balls for 122 yards. All seven of Ridley’s catches went for first downs, highlighted by his third-and-4 reception in the fourth.

Zay Jones, before leaving the game with an injury, caught three balls for 23 yards and a touchdown. Jones seems to be the glue that keeps this offense together, and when he is healthy, things look so much cleaner. Christian Kirk also added 78 yards receiving on six catches.

The Jaguars’ offensive unit ran a monstrous 82 plays and gained 474 total yards. They kept the ball for almost 40 minutes of the game, compared to the Bills’ 21 minutes of possession.

On third down, the Jaguars converted 10-18 tries, which is far and away a vast improvement from the rest of the season.

Yes, Lawrence was sacked five times and fumbled twice. But injuries and an acclimating Cam Robinson didn’t help that.

All in all, the Jaguars’ offense looked like the type of offense we all expected to see earlier on in the season.

Defense

Yet again, the Jags’ defense came to play.

Against a mammoth of an offense in front of them, the Jags defensive unit held the Bills to just 20 points. That point total is the lowest the Bills have put up since Week 1.

The Bills had 388 total yards through 12 drives, but it never felt out of control. Of that total yardage, only 29 came on the ground. On third downs, the Jaguars held the Bills to just five conversions on 12 tries.

The defensive line did not record a sack, but did generate three tackles for loss and six quarterback hits.

Darious Williams recorded a pick in his second consecutive game and defended his seventh pass of the season. His seven passes defended are tied for a league lead.

On the final play on offense for the Bills, the Bills fumbled and the Jaguars recovered, eerily reminiscent of last week’s win over the Atlanta Falcons.

The Bills simply were not handed the ball enough to make much of anything happen and the Jaguars’ defense capitalized. Through three quarters, the Bills only had seven points.

Time of possession is key in these games, and with their backs against the ball for the entire day, the Bills could not get past the Jags’ defense. Hats off to Mike Caldwell and his unit in their second year.

Losers

Injuries

This will be the only loser today, and it is not a crazy one.

Jones left Sunday’s game with an injury, as did linemen Walker Little and Cam Robinson. Ridley was also evaluated for a concussion, but he returned.

All injuries are big in various ways for the Jags, and only time will tell how serious those injuries are and if they will have any lasting impact.

The line struggled on Sunday, albeit against a very good defense. Five sacks and two fumbles off of those sacks are glaring, but the hodgepodge of an offensive lineman group provided Lawrence no favors.

The Jaguars need to be healthy up front, but even with injuries to the line, the Jags managed to gut out a win. Think about what they could be capable of when healthy…