The Jaguars have a plus-85 point differential, the best in the NFL

The Jacksonville Jaguars have outscored their opponents 196-111 through Sunday's Week 8 games, a plus-85 differential that leads the NFL's 32 teams, per ESPN's standings. San Francisco is next at plus-58, and Buffalo at plus-52. Per game, Jacksonville is plus-12.1, ahead of San Francisco's plus-8.3. Jacksonville entered Sunday at plus-50 and left at plus-85.

Game by game

• Week 1: won 34-10 vs Cleveland Browns
• Week 2: lost 13-20 at Denver Broncos
• Week 3: won 35-6 vs New England Patriots
• Week 4: won 22-17 at Cincinnati Bengals
• Week 5: won 19-17 vs Philadelphia Eagles
• Week 6: lost 31-34 vs Houston Texans
• Week 8: won 42-7 vs Indianapolis Colts

Jacksonville had a Week 7 bye, so Sunday's win was its 7th game.

Where the margin comes from

Jacksonville scores 28.0 points per game and allows 15.9, against a league average of 23.2. The 5 wins came by 24, 29, 5, 2, and 35 points, and the 2 losses came by 7 and 3 points. The 5 wins include 3 by at least 24 points, and neither loss came by more than 7.

Not just a soft schedule

The skeptic's case is the schedule: Jacksonville's 7 opponents are a combined 27-27. But those opponents average 22.4 points in their other games, compared with 15.9 against Jacksonville, a gap of 6.5 points per game. The drop holds against winning teams too: Cincinnati averages 31.5 in its other games and scored 17 at Jacksonville, and Denver averages 21.7 and scored 20. Jacksonville's defense has held 6 of its 7 opponents to 20 points or fewer.

The caveat

The caveat: 7 games is 7 games, and Week 8 ends Monday night, so this table will move again. The lead is 27 points, built on a defense holding opponents 6.5 points below their usual scoring.