The Jacksonville Jaguars won’t be playing in sunny Florida conditions when they face the New York Jets on Thursday night.
As of now, weather forecasts are projecting temperatures to be in the 40s at kickoff with chances of rain over 80 percent. High winds are also possible in East Rutherford, N.J. on Thursday.
“They’ve gotta play in it too,” Jaguars linebacker Foye Oluokun told 1010XL’s Mia O’Brien on Tuesday. “It’s gonna be a muddy game, gritty game. That’s the kind of game we like — gritty, not pretty. Just expect that kind of physical football that that weather brings. We’ll have our mindset ready for that.”
The Jaguars have mostly avoided rough weather this season. The notable exception was a wet, windy game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 4 that proved to be disastrous for Trevor Lawrence, who fumbled four times and threw an interception in the 29-21 loss.
“We understand that we kind of had our own self-inflicted issues in Philly in terms of our ball security,” Jaguars offensive coordinator Press Taylor said Tuesday. “That’s just something we’ve been aware of, we’ve tried to emphasize that. Every single week we’ve gone in, we’ve played games where there’s expected rain. Whether that was home games or on the road. That’s certainly something we’re aware of, we understand that we have to do a better job than we did.”
After that loss to the Eagles, Taylor told reporters that the team would talk to Lawrence about potentially wearing gloves in future rainy games. But the Jaguars may be hesitant to change much about Lawrence’s game considering he’s thrown 14 touchdowns and only one interception in his last six games.
