Jaguars Ease To Win Over Falcons In London

The Jacksonville Jaguars earned the first win of the 2023 NFL London Games, after a 23-7 win over the Atlanta Falcons in a loud Wembley Stadium.

 The result moves both teams to 2-2 for the season so far as they look ahead to their next games. Jacksonville stay in London for their Week Five clash with the Buffalo Bills, whereas the Falcons host the Houston Texans.

 The game started off slowly, with both the Jaguars and Falcons forced to punt the ball away on both their opening drives, the latter doing so with a three and out. 

 However, the Jags soon found their groove on their second drive, with Trevor Lawrence scrambling for an impressive 22-yard run and finding Calvin Ridley in the end zone for the game’s first touchdown. 

 After evading pressure, Lawrence showed his core strength by avoiding the sack, before throwing it to Ridley for a 30-yard touchdown to send the well supported Jags crowd wild. 

 The Falcons struggled to get back into the game, with only a 15-yard gain for tight end Jonnu Smith and a 10-yard catch from KhaDarel Hodge to write home about in the first half. Just as the Falcons were starting to make some plays, their momentum was soon stopped, as Darious Williams’s picked off Falcons quarterback Desmond Ridder with just under five minutes remaining in the second quarter for a pick six. 

 Desmond Ridder’s nightmare continued, as he was soon picked off in the Falcons’ very next play, his pass being intercepted by Andre Cisco. The Falcons managed to stop the Jags on a fourth down effort in the redzone, but they failed to grasp this opportunity. Nine times out of ten, Williams would have caught an interception after beating Mack Hollins in coverage, which would have made things even worse for Atlanta. 

 The Falcons needed to start off the second half strongly if they wanted to win the game, and they did just that. In an impressive drive that saw rookie Bijan Robinson record a 38-yard rushing attempt, it was finished up with a 15-yard touchdown pass from Ridder to Drake London. Life was brought back for the Falcons. They once again had hope. However, the comeback never materialised, despite the Falcons’ attempts in the redzone. Atlanta went for it on fourth down midway through the final quarter, but London just couldn’t quite keep his feet in bounds. 

 This was just the second NFL game at Wembley since the COVID-19 pandemic, and this very much remains the Jaguars’ home. After over a decade of home games, the franchise have really taken to the UK games and the atmosphere felt as close to a game in America that it could be. 

Andy Davies