A year ago, who would have thought the Jaguars would be one half of a Game of the Week entering Week 10 of the 2023 season?
The 49ers? Of course.
But the Jaguars? No.
A year ago, the Jaguars were 0-for-October and floundering.
They enter Week 10 with a 6-2 record as they play a home game Sunday against the 5-3 49ers.
Since that miserable October 2022, the Jaguars have won 14 of 19 games, and three of the five losses came against the Super Bowl-champion Chiefs. Only Kansas City has a better record over that span.
The Jaguars and 49ers enter this game as teams heading in vastly different directions. Jacksonville has won five in a row, and San Francisco has lost its past three after a 5-0 start.
The 49ers looked infallible with their fairytale quarterback Brock Purdy, the last player selected in the 2022 draft, cruising along as if he was never going to lose a game as a starter. The shine on Purdy has dulled a bit in recent weeks, as he’s made mistakes he wasn’t making while winning his first 10 NFL starts.
In San Francisco’s first five games, Purdy threw nine touchdown passes and no interceptions. In the past three games — losses to the Browns, Vikings and Bengals — he’s thrown five picks and just three TDs.
Herein lies the fascinating twist to this game: The Jaguars — who were more known for Trevor Lawrence, their No. 1-overall 2021 draft pick quarterback — have been riding their defense this season.
The Jaguars have allowed 81 points (16.2 per game) during their winning streak. They’re allowing just 79.3 rushing yards per game and 3.6 yards per carry — both ranked fourth in the NFL. And they lead the league with 18 takeaways.
The Jags defense will be taxed by Christian McCaffrey, the 49ers do-everything running back who leads the NFL with 652 yards rushing yards and 13 total TDs. McCaffrey also has 32 catches for 292 yards and has generated an NFL-best 56 first downs. He, too, has scored at least one TD in every game this season, extending his streak to a record-tying 17 in a row in the regular season and playoffs.
Sunday’s game is the beginning of a stretch in which the Jaguars play four of their next six games at home, with a chance to separate themselves in the AFC South — where the Texans are 4-4, the Colts 4-5 and the Titans are 3-5.
“Winning brings a lot of happy faces here, but we also know this isn’t end of it,’’ Jaguars linebacker Josh Allen told reporters. “We all know we put a target on our back, and people are going to go for that.’’
Now the Jaguars are trying not to reverse the trend of last season, when they got off to the poor start and rallied in November and December to win the division and advance to the divisional round, where they lost to the Chiefs.
Jacksonville receiver Christian Kirk has used his past experience as a reminder to his teammates. Kirk was on the 2021 Cardinals team that started 7-0 and was 9-2 before losing four of its last five games.
“[We] still made the playoffs, but we weren’t playing great football, and we were a first-round exit,” Kirk told reporters. “So, it doesn’t matter what you do in the first part of the season. It’s all about how you play when these games start getting more important.”
This is an important game for the Jaguars to continue their run, but it’s important for the 49ers to stop the bleeding. Their struggles on offense can be at least partially tied to the absences of left tackle Trent Williams and receiver Deebo Samuel, who have been out with injuries.
The 49ers are hoping to have both back for this game, which also will mark the debut with the team for pass rusher Chase Young, who was acquired from Washington at the trade deadline.
San Francisco defensive tackle Arik Armstead, as the 49ers departed for some bye-week days off, called the vibe on the team “a mixed mood” regarding its first eight games and where it stands entering this week.
“My mood is that we have been through worse in this league, 3-4 last year, and 3-5 the year before, and we know where we got toward the end of the year in both of those years,’’ Armstead said. “Putting those things into perspective, we have everything we need to be successful team-wise, and we have all the players.”
The Niners won seven of their final nine games to end the 2021 season and finished last season on a 10-game winning streak.
“The good news is we’ve been here before and we’ve had pretty good results,” defensive end Nick Bosa told reporters. “There’s a lot of silver linings with who we have in this locker room. We just have to play better.”
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