The Jacksonville Jaguars got their fourth consecutive win of the season on Thursday night, beating the New Orleans Saints 31-24 in a game that came down to the wire. Here is our initial statistical review of the game.
Game Summary
According to our new noise-canceled score metric, the game was as close as it seemed. The Saints even had a shot of tying the game late, but their goal-line stand in the final seconds was ultimately unsuccessful.
The Saints benefitted from a muffed punt early, but the Jaguars benefitted from the Saints’ struggles in scoring range all night. Overall, it wasn’t a stellar performance for both offenses, especially on late downs.
Passing summary
With the exception of their short drive that tied the game at 24-24, the Saints' passing offense mainly consisted of ineffective check downs and misses on third downs, which is why they had an atrocious efficiency on targeted passes.
The Jaguars' passing offense was more efficient than it looked, mostly because they avoided negatives, and Trevor Lawrence scrambled a few times for first downs despite his injury going into the game.
Receiving summary
Calvin Ridley was shut down for the whole game and saw only four targets on 32 routes. Two of those were low-percentage go balls without any separation. His only catch of the day came on a bubble screen for 5 yards.
All of them had their moments, but overall, it wasn’t a good day for the Saints’ receiving corps, as Alvin Kamara was the team's most efficient receiver, and even his targets were mostly inefficient.
Rushing summary
Besides Travis Etienne’s rushing touchdowns in the red zone, the Jaguars couldn’t do anything on the ground, as 13 of their 16 rushing attempts outside the red zone were unsuccessful, including all their short-yardage attempts on third and fourth down.
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