Every Thursday I’ll present an interesting (to me, anyway) stat, break it down and try to provide some context heading into the game the following weekend.
First-down action
The Jacksonville Jaguars aren’t conservative when it comes to first down. Far from it, in fact.
Jaguars offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch has called just 36 first-down runs through the first four games, a number that ranks last in the NFL. Dallas leads the NFL with 82 rushes on first downs. However, when the Jaguars have run the ball on first down they’ve been moderately successful, averaging 3.61 yards per carry, which ranks 21st out of the 32 teams.
Fisch has called 67 passes on first downs, a number that ranks third behind Chicago (73) and Philadelphia (72). The flip side to that, though, is that the Jaguars are averaging only 5 yards per attempt, which means the majority of the passes are short.
What that means for overall first-down production is this: The Jaguars have the lowest first-down production with 3.61 yards per play. Detroit is 31st with 3.62 yards per play.
That’s even worse than last year, when the Jaguars ranked 30th in the NFL in average yards gained (4.79) and average yards rushing (3.40) on first down. Only Miami (4.73) and Tampa Bay (4.72) averaged fewer yards gained on first down and only Baltimore (3.27 yards) and Tampa Bay (3.22) average fewer yards rushing on first down than the Jaguars.