Head Coach Liam Coen and the Jacksonville Jaguars opened the season with a statement win, defeating Dave Canales and the Carolina Panthers 26-10 on Sunday at EverBank Stadium.
Jacksonville struck first with a field goal on the opening drive, despite several penalties that set the offense back. Carolina answered with a field goal of its own to tie the game at 3, but the Jaguars’ offense soon broke through for the game’s first touchdown. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence found tight end Hunter Long to cap off a 75-yard touchdown drive and give the Jaguars a 10-3 lead.
An hour-long lightning delay stopped play halfway through the second quarter, but it did little to stop the momentum the Jaguars had built up. After the defense forced a punt, Running back Travis Etienne opened the drive with a 71-yard sprint that set up an eventual 11-yard touchdown run from Brian Thomas Jr stretching the lead to 17-3.
“I have to get in there Monday, keep working on my speed,” Etienne said on getting caught on his long run. “We can’t have that anymore. We have to finish those runs.”
Coen, hired from Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he crafted one of the league’s most prolific rushing attacks, carried that philosophy to Jacksonville. Fifth-year running back Travis Etienne dominated the Panthers’ defense for 143 rushing yards on 16 carries, good for the second-highest rushing total of his career.
The Jaguars scored 26 points, almost ten more than their 2024 average of 18.8 per game.
Lawrence looked more comfortable in Coen’s system, aside from a few uncharacteristic throws in the third quarter.
“I thought he handled things well, I thought he a had a not great third quarter, we need to be more accurate”, Coen said of Lawrence. “I thought overall for his first start in a new system, he handled it really well.
The story of this game was the Jaguars defense. They forced three turnovers and two turnover on downs.
Pro Bowl linebacker Foye Oluokon had an interception, a forced fumble, and 10 tackles.
Jourdan Lewis, a cornerback, made his Jaguars debut and recovered Oluokon’s fumble and sealed the game with a late interception. He also tacked on three pass breakups and five tackles.
The three turnovers that Jacksonville forced equaled nearly one-third of their 2024 total of nine. First-year defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile called a great game dialing up pressure when needed and keeping Bryce Young and the Panthers guessing all afternoon. Young completed just 51% of his passes and was responsible for all three of his teams turnovers in a disappointing season debut.
The Panthers managed little on the ground as running back Chuba Hubbard was stymied for most of the game as he was held to just over three yards per carry on 16 attempts for 57 yards. He caught a touchdown pass late on the Panthers lone score of the day, but it was too little too late as the onside kick attempt quickly failed which allowed Jacksonville to run out most of the clock and close out the game.
The Jaguars look to continue their momentum against a much steeper test as they travel to Cincinnati next week to take on Joe Burrow and the Bengals. It is the second time that Joe Burrow and Trevor Lawrence will clash in the NFL after a historic matchup in the 2019 National Championship where Burrow’s LSU Tigers bested Lawrence’s Clemson Tigers.
The game between the Jaguars and Bengals will kick off Sept. 14 at 1 p.m. EST and can be watched on CBS.
