JACKSONVILLE - The Jacksonville Jaguars, riding a 35-6 demolition of the New England Patriots and a 15-5 record over their last 20 regular-season games, travel to Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sunday to face a Cincinnati Bengals team that is also 2-1 and presents one of the most dangerous receiving threats in the NFL.
Head Coach Liam Coen said the message entering the week is the same one that produced last week’s lopsided win over the defending AFC champions. “That’s really going to be the message all week again - is less about them, more about us,” Coen said Wednesday.
The most immediate test of that internal focus will come against All-Pro wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, who torched Jacksonville for 14 passes, 165 yards and a touchdown in the Bengals’ 31-27 come-from-behind victory over the Jaguars in Week 2 last season. Coen acknowledged Chase will make plays, but said the response matters more than the damage. “Goldfish mentality, right? That’s what it has to be, though,” Coen said. “You know he’s a potential Hall of Famer. And so is he going to make some plays? Absolutely. So much of this week, similar to last, is it’s about our response.”
Defensive end Josh Hines-Allen echoed the coaching staff’s emphasis on blocking out external noise. “If we can just focus on ourselves, we’re the ones that’s playing the real game,” Hines-Allen said Wednesday. “If we start worrying about external stuff, then you know that gets to clouding our judgment and how fast we can play, how fast we’re reacting to things.”
Wide receiver Brian Thomas Jr. said the locker room’s confidence is grounded in self-assessment rather than opponent scouting. “We are our biggest critics,” Thomas said. “We know what we can do. We know what we have got to go out there and do. We feel like if we go out there and do what we do and play how we play, we feel like nobody can beat us.”
One of the most measurable improvements in Jacksonville’s 2026 campaign has been discipline. After finishing the 2025 season as the NFL’s second-most penalized team, the Jaguars are tied for the third-fewest penalty yards through three weeks this season. Coen credited familiarity with the system. “Year 2 helps,” he said. “Being in the same system on both sides of the football, all three phases - especially with some of the pre-snaps, motions, shifts, cans, going from one play to the other, having more continuity and chemistry within that.”
Coen cautioned against overconfidence heading into a matchup between two evenly matched AFC clubs. “It’s any given Sunday; anything can happen regardless of record and past histories,” he said. “Everybody is pretty good. You have to have a game plan, but we have to go play and it’s about blocking longer, tackling fundamentals, but also our best players and our guys, we have to go make some plays, too.”
Kickoff at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati is Sunday.