Jaguars vs Chargers: Play of the game

Sep 26, 2022 - 9:34 PM

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Doug Pederson, Trevor Lawrence, and the rest of the Jacksonville Jaguars put on a clinic in their 38-10 victory at Los Angeles. Like the Colts before them, the Chargers were far from 100% healthy against the Jaguars -- but a +52 point differential in the past two weeks is incredible nonetheless.

Though it’s easy to forget now, this game wasn’t a complete ass-whooping from the start. The Jaguars held a multi-score halftime lead for a second straight time; but then Justin Herbert threw a ball (understatement of humanity) and Dustin Hopkins kicked another to suddenly make it a six-point ball game.

Following Los Angeles’ scoring drive to open the second half, Jacksonville faced a 4th-and-1 near midfield. Pederson called a perfect play that was well-executed by every player on the field, but none better than James Robinson.

Robinson traveled east-west in the backfield before breaking north-south. This made the final defender move horizontally and towards Brandon Scherff’s outside in order to keep contain. And that made it an easy block for the pulling All-Pro guard once Robinson cut inside.

This is Robinson’s superstar ability: not just reading, but manipulating defenders to help his blockers create holes. If Trevor is Jesus, James is Moses.

The 50-yard score was the first of three consecutive touchdown drives by Jacksonville in the second half (their only other drive was a single quarterback kneel to end the game). According to rbsdm.com, it was the biggest play of the Week 3 matchup in terms of both expected points added and win probability differential.

James Robinson is good at football.