100 hours til kickoff: Jaguars wasted no time shifting focus to Ravens

One hundred hours.

By the time Jacksonville Jaguars players heard the postgame speech from coach Liam Coen and began to peel off their rain-soaked equipment on Nov. 1, their focus had shifted.

Sure, the Jaguars wanted to celebrate how their 42-7 win over the Indianapolis Colts moved their record to 5-2 and extended their division lead to an NFL-best 2 1/2 games.

But the clock was already ticking toward Week 9. Recovery. Preparation. Travel.

Instead of 165 hours (4 p.m. Sunday to 1 p.m. the following Sunday), the Jaguars have 100 hours (4:15 p.m. Sunday to 8:15 p.m. Thursday) between the win over Indianapolis and their game at the Baltimore Ravens.

Instead of six “off days,” they have three “off days,” in between games.

The Jaguars are playing a Thursday night game for the first time since they won at New Orleans in October 2023.

“I’m excited to see what it’s going to be like because I have no idea,” rookie tight end Nate Boerkircher said. “I was asking (tight end) Brenton (Strange) the other day, ‘How does this even work?’ It’s crazy because there isn’t a lot of time to figure things out.”

“Mission Two Wins in Five Days,” was underway.

Recovery started right after game

Years ago, the Washington Football Team was preparing for a December short week game against the Chicago Bears. I asked veteran left guard Pete Kendall for his best process.

“Toradol,” was his one-word answer.

Toradol is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug used for short-term treatment of moderate-to-severe pain.

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Who knows if that is on the Jaguars’ menu this week, but we know what was immediately after beating the Colts.

“It seemed like the whole defense was just in the cold tubs,” defensive tackle Matt Dickerson said. “Recovery starts now.”

A dip in the cold tub promotes muscle recovery, reduces inflammation and improves circulation. Whereas players may wait until Monday morning across the parking lot at the Jaguars’ headquarters to take the plunge, they retreated to the stadium tubs after the Colts game.

“I already got mine done,” Strange said. “I’m being proactive. Recovery starts now. That’s the most important thing.”

The Jaguars were scheduled to bring the players in later in the day on Nov. 2 and have walk-through practices on Nov. 3-4 before flying to Baltimore.

This will be a new experience for many Jaguars players.

For the aformentioned game at New Orleans three years ago, only four Jaguars starters from that game — quarterback Trevor Lawrence, cornerback Buster Brown and defensive ends Josh Hines-Allen and Travon Walker — remain on the roster. Only 10 of the 53 players eligible for that game are still here.

Dickerson said his Sunday night routine would be altered.

“We’ll get on the (video review) when I get home tonight,” he said. “It’s such a short week so you get ready and start preparing.”

Said Lawrence, who is 2-1 in Thursday night games: “We’ll start first thing in the morning (on Nov. 2). Usually on Mondays, you watch the film of the game you just played and then get Tuesday off (from being on the field) and really start Wednesday. (This week) is just getting the plan underway as soon as possible and getting all of the information from the coaches as soon as we can to get a jump start on it.”

Rout allowed starters to leave game early

The Jaguars are 7-9 all-time in Thursday night games. They played the Titans from 2014-16 and 2018-19 when the NFL’s broadcast plan required all teams to play at least one Thursday night game.

Amazon Prime’s $11 billion deal (2023-33) to telecast Thursday games was signed with the promise of better matchups. For example, the Green Bay Packers have already played twice.

A bonus benefit of routing the Colts was play-time management.

“It did help that it wasn’t necessarily deep into the fourth quarter when all of our guys were (still) playing,” Lawrence said.

On offense, only left tackle Walker Little and left guard Emmanuel Pregnon played all 54 snaps. The Jaguars dressed eight linemen and had seven available after right guard Ezra Cleveland sustained a first-half right ankle injury. Little and Pregnon had to go the distance.

Lawrence played 44 snaps and Strange (28), receivers Parker Washington (36), Jakobi Meyers (29) and Brian Thomas, Jr. (28) and running backs Bhayshul Tuten (27) and Chris Rodriguez (12) had their time managed.

On defense, only safety Rayuan Lane played all 61 snaps and that was out of necessity because starter Eric Murray (elbow) was injured covering the opening kickoff. No other player on defense played more than 54 snaps (Brown).

Defensive tackle Arik Armstead (33), defensive ends Josh Hines-Allen (29) and Travon Walker (28) and linebackers Foye Oluokun (43) and Ventrell Miller (40) got the early hook. Travis Hunter played 49 snaps on defense and six on offense.

In all, 42 Jaguars played at least 10 offensive or defensive snaps.

This should be as fresh of a football team as possible against Baltimore, which lost quarterback Lamar Jackson to a broken right thumb and back-up Tyler Huntley to a turf toe injury in its loss to the Buffalo Bills. Rookie Joe Fagnano finished the game.

“A lot of us feel good and we’ll be ready,” Dickerson said.

As Dickerson talked, the clock was ticking. One hundred hours until kickoff.

“Mission Two Wins in Five Days” was underway.

Contact O’Halloran at rohalloran@gannett.com or on X at @ryanohalloran. Listen to Ryan on 1010AM on Tuesdays (6:35 p.m. on “Into The Night”), Thursdays (1:15 on “XL Primetime”) and Fridays (“First Coast Football Friday” 4-7 p.m.).

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: 100 hours til kickoff: Jaguars wasted no time shifting focus to Ravens