A nice piece by Alfie looking at the numbers. Here are a few excerpts:

Quote:First of all, the team is more competitive than they were last season through the first nine weeks. Last year the Jaguars had a 178 point differential through Week 9 (in only 8 games) while this season it's just 110, with an extra game factored in. They've given up 68 less points at this point, even though the start of the season was so awful.


Through the last six games the Jaguars have been in every game entering the fourth quarter and if a few plays go differently, they could have two to three more wins. Part of that is because the defense is playing better than it was at this point last year and the offense is playing better than it was at this point last year.

Quote:The Jaguars offense is easily outpacing last years offense with half of the players starting/contributing as rookies. It took a few weeks to get things sorted out, which isn't uncommon when a team has a high turnover rate and when the team is exceedingly young, but over the past four to five weeks the Jaguars have settled in and now they just need to learn how to win. Last season at this point they'd scored single digits in half their games. This year they've scored single digits just once.

<a class="bbc_url" href='http://www.bigcatcountry.com/2014/11/4/7154257/jacksonville-jaguars-improvement-2014-comparison-2013'>http://www.bigcatcountry.com/2014/11/4/7154257/jacksonville-jaguars-improvement-2014-comparison-2013</a>


This years team has outpaced last years team in most categories:


Total offense per game 278.4 yards (2013), 319.6 (2014) difference: +41.2 yards


Total defense per game 388 yards (2013), 386 (2014) difference: +2


Points scored per game 12.78 (2013), 15.67 (2014) difference: +2.89


Points allowed per game 32.3 (2013), 27.9 (2014) difference: +4.4


Rushing yards per game 65 (2013), 101.1 (2014) difference: +36.1


Passing yards per game 213 (2013), 212 (2014) difference: -1


Turnovers forced 11 (2013), 10 (2014) difference: -1


The only areas in need of improvement is passing offense and winning the turnover battle. Both will begin to gain traction to the positive side as Bortles and our rookie WRs develop in this offense.


The next step of improvement will need to come in the Win/Loss column and I fully expect that to happen as this young team grows and the mistakes become fewer.

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