The Jacksonville Jaguars have one of the best defenses in the NFL, headlined by what is probably the best secondary in the NFL. In their wild card playoff matchup on Sunday, they were not up against a great offense in the Buffalo Bills, and it showed. They more than handled Tyrod Taylor and everything the Bills had to offer.
The Jaguars allowed just 133 total yards passing, and kept LeSean McCoy under 100 yards rushing despite 19 carries. They looked great on that side of the ball, which is important because the offense looked awful. They looked beatable, though.
They are beatable, as San Francisco 49ers fans know. The Bills only put up three points on the Jaguars, but the 49ers, with Jimmy Garoppolo at quarterback, attacked the secondary with a vigor and put up 44 points en route to a victory in Week 16 of the regular season.
We’re going to talk about the playoffs a lot given how the 49ers finished the regular season. If Garoppolo didn’t play well or didn’t start, I probably wouldn’t care about the playoffs. Now all I can think about is how the 49ers could definitely beat all these teams that I’m watching.
As I wrote this article, I was watching the New Orleans Saints slowly lose their lead against the Carolina Panthers. They held on to win, but Saturday I said the Saints would beat the 49ers definitively. Now, I’m not so sure. The 49ers can do a lot of what the Panthers do on defense, and Garoppolo is ... Garoppolo.
I’ll probably write a “the 49ers could have beat them” post after every game these playoffs at this rate.