The Jaguars traveled to Kansas City this past weekend to take on the Chiefs. Needless to say, things did not go as planned for the Big Cats.
Here's five things to remember from the Jaguars ugly 30-14 loss to the Chiefs on Sunday. 1. The Jaguars were out coached The Jaguars defense wasn't ready for the Chiefs offensive attack, but who is? Still, the best defense in football is expected to perform at a higher level. They gave up a quick 10 points to start the game and couldn't get off the field when they needed to in the second half. Andy Reid and his coaching staff were able to work in new ways to attack this defense. There were formations and play calls that the Jaguars were not prepared for as a unit. Some of the blame falls on the coaches for not having the team better prepared on defense. On the other side of the ball the Jaguars featured Donte Moncrief far too often and his inefficient play continued. Going for it on fourth down in the second quarter was a mistake. And no, I'm not just saying that in hindsight. If the Jaguars converted a field goal on that drive they would have trailed by just one touchdown. The team desperately needed to put points on the board and came away with nothing after two interesting play calls on third and fourth down. Doug Marrone rarely gets out coached by a wide margin, but that's exactly what happened in Arrowhead. He and his staff will look to turn things around in Dallas next week. 2. Offensive injuries are crippling Injuries along the offensive line have begun to take their tole. The Jaguars lost their starting left tackle, Cam Robinson, in week one, and have suffered a litany of injuries to their offensive lineman since then. Robinson's back up, Josh Wells, sustained a groin injury against the Chiefs and missed the remainder of the game. Each of the Jaguars interior offensive lineman have missed practice time due to various injuries. Things are getting ugly for the Jaguars offensive line. The Jaguars running back group has been hit by the injury bug too. Leonard Fournette is out indefinitely with a hamstring injury. TJ Yeldon has been toughing it out through an ankle injury for several weeks. On Sunday third string RB Corey Grant came down with what appears to be a Lisfranc injury and is likely out for the season. Austin Seferian-Jenkins missed a portion of the game on Sunday as well. He's been battling a core muscle injury since the first week of the regular season. This offense doesn't have the talent to produce at a high level consistently with so many injuries. 3. The pass rush has to find it's legs The Jaguars pass rush just hasn't been the same in 2018. Sure, they've gotten a fair amount of pressure on opposing QBs, but they haven't been able to change games with sacks, forced fumbles and the like. Pat Mahomes was sacked just once yesterday and the Jaguars now have produced only 11 sacks in five games this year. They're averaging just over two sacks per game as a team. This, after averaging nearly 3.5 sacks per game in 2017. The talent is there, but where is the production? 4. Blake Bortles, Blake Bortles, Blake Bortles Five turnovers in one game for Blake Bortles . . . yikes. Many quality QBs around the league have performances like this from time to time, but this is the type of performance Blake will need to bounce back from quickly to quiet the noise. Of course, he was under duress for much of the day. And asking him to throw the ball 61 times in a game certainly isn't a recipe for success. Still, he's got to take care of the ball better and play more efficient. This is one that he and the rest of the Jaguars will like to forget. 5. The Jaguars have what it takes to rebound from this one. The Jaguars were outplayed, out coached, and out hustled on Sunday. The Chiefs, in front of a raucous crowd at Arrowhead, were far too much. But the Jaguars, under Doug Marrone, have shown that they can respond to adversity. The team traded wins and losses for six weeks to start the 2017 regular season and suffered losses at the hands of the Titans twice last year. They were able to bounce back and make it all the way to the AFC Championship, and were on the brink of the first Super Bowl appearance in franchise history. These Jaguars, even with a bevy of offensive injuries, should be able respond to this disappointing result in a positive manner. |
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