JACKSONVILLE – We’re not at must-win time. Not yet, anyway.
But the Jaguars without question are at the point in the 2025 regular season where games really matter – and Sunday’s road game against the Las Vegas Raiders really matters for some really, really meaningful reasons.
The Jaguars, winners of three consecutive games early in the season to move to the top of the AFC, need to win to regain momentum after a two-game losing streak entering this past week’s Week 8 bye.
They need to win to at least maintain their status just outside the top seven teams in the AFC.
They’re also still within range of the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC South – but with the Colts playing as well as any team in the NFL, the Jaguars need to win to stay within range of a team that enters Week 9 with a two-and-a-half game lead in the division.
Those are big reasons Sunday matters, but perhaps the biggest reason is the Jaguars simply need to play well – something they did consistently while winning four of their first five games but something they didn’t do in their last two games.
This remains a confident team and it remains, as Head Coach Liam Coen has said in recent weeks, a team with “everything in front of them.” But that’s only true if the Jaguars start winning again, something they can do in Nevada Sunday.