Patriots To Avoid Top Jaguars Playmaker In London Matchup

The Patriots won’t have to contend with one of the bigger boom-or-bust weapons in the entire NFL on Sunday.

Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson spoke to NFL Media’s Steve Wyche a few hours before New England and Jacksonville met at Wembley Stadium in London, and revealed the “home” team would be without its primary rusher.

“Travis had a really good week, but unfortunately he’s not going to be able to make this game,” Pederson said, as seen on NFL Network. “We just want to make sure he’s 100%, so Tank (Bigsby), D’Ernest (Johnson) and Jake Funk — who we promoted from our practice squad… Tank and D’Ernest have done a good job, so we’re going to ride with those two guys.”

Jacksonville isn’t completely knackered by the loss of Etienne, though, and the emergence of Bigsby has been one of the only positive developments for the club this season.

Bigsby has come on strong recently, starting to showcase an innate ability to break tackles (5.8 yards after contact per rush) and take on a heavy workload. The Patriots have been abhorrent against the run recently, giving up 177.7 rushing yards per game over their last three, so this it isn’t an easy matchup by any means.

The Patriots will see their own running back, Rhamondre Stevenson, return to the lineup for the early-morning matchup. It should help rookie Drake Maye in his second career start. Jacksonville and New England will kick things off at 9:30 a.m. ET.