The Jaguars are a first-place team by a tiebreaker. The product on the field sure doesn’t feel that way.
Jacksonville’s freefall continued on Christmas Eve, an inexplicable 30-12 blowout loss to the Buccaneers that stretched its season-high losing streak to four games and has shown no signs of slowing down.
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Trevor Lawrence returned from six days in the concussion protocol and turned in another poor showing — three turnovers that led to three Tampa Bay touchdowns — before leaving with a shoulder injury and being replaced by C.J. Beathard early in the fourth quarter. That was a footnote to an all-around, coal-in-the-stocking-type of letdown for coach Doug Pederson’s spiraling Jaguars, who have one more opportunity next week to avoid an 0-fer December.
Pederson has run out of answers to address his slumping team’s implosion.
Jacksonville is playing its worst football at the worst time and has no margin for error over its final two weeks. About the only positives Sunday were losses by the Texans and Colts that left the three teams tied for the AFC South lead. Jacksonville can’t win the AFC South without winning at least one of its final two games, creating must-win scenarios the final two weeks of the year. For Pederson, the refrain was a familiar one, and one that he doesn’t have an answer for.
“You want to see a win, right? You want to see the guys come to this game and have that sense of urgency. I give Tampa a lot of credit. They came ready to play,” Pederson said. “They’re playing for the same things we’re playing for, you know, in their division. So, it just has to mean something to everybody and today I just didn’t think it meant as much to us as it did to them.”
Carolina (2-13), the league’s worst team, visits EverBank Stadium next week in the home finale. Jacksonville visits Tennessee in Week 18. Can the Jaguars feel confident in either of those situations? Not how they’ve played in December.
Same problems
Its fourth consecutive loss amplified all the pre-existing issues that have tipped the fortunes of the Jaguars over the past month. Pederson has offered similar reasons for the struggles, but it’s one that Jacksonville just can’t find out how to address.
The defense has regressed, this time carved up by Baker Mayfield and Mike Evans. Mayfield was 26 of 35 passing for 283 yards. Evans had seven catches and 86 yards on eight targets.
Special teams are a mess. Once-reliable kicker Brandon McManus missed a 52-yard field goal in the opening half, and is now just 1 for 6 the last month.
The offensive line remains the team’s weakest unit. Lawrence was sacked three times and has taken a career-high 35 sacks this year. Beathard was sacked once in mop-up duty. Right tackle Anton Harrison left with a back injury, something Pederson thought could be relatively minor.
The ground game is nonexistent. Travis Etienne had 12 yards on six carries as the rushing attack netted all of 37 yards.
And Lawrence hasn’t been capable of — or healthy enough — rising above those myriad issues that plague Jacksonville.
Lawrence returned from the concussion protocol and looked shaky from the opening drive. He threw a pair of interceptions in the opening half — turnovers that led to Tampa Bay touchdowns — and lost a fumble on the opening drive of the third quarter that led to another scoring drive. The Buccaneers used that giveaway and turned it into a 2-yard touchdown run by Rachaad White. Tampa Bay led 30-0 late in the third quarter before Jacksonville found the end zone.
“At some point we’ve got to take control of it and go play the way that I know we’re capable of playing, and we’re not doing that. It’s like we’re all waiting around, waiting on something to happen for us to get out of this funk and it’s not happening. No one is coming to save us,” Lawrence said.
“We’ve got to go take control and take these games, win them and put ourselves in position. So, yeah, I’ve got a lot of thoughts. It’s frustrating. It’s really embarrassing and frustrating. You put a lot of work in to do that, and to look like you don’t even practice… I mean, that’s what it looks like. You’ve just got to call it like you see it sometimes.”
Jacksonville (8-7) has had no answers during a four-game losing streak. The Jaguars haven’t played particularly well during that slide, but still had opportunities in losses to the Bengals (34-31 in OT), Browns (31-27) and Ravens (23-7). That wasn’t the case against the Buccaneers and quarterback Mayfield, who carved up Jacksonville’s defense from open to close.
More mistakes
Against the Ravens on “Sunday Night Football” last week, Jacksonville missed two field goals, lost a fumble and had a disastrous sequence before halftime that cost it points. It went into the break down 10-0. They were worse against the Buccaneers.
Lawrence threw first-half interceptions to Antoine Winfield Jr. and Devin White, both on the Buccaneers side of the field. Tampa Bay converted both of those into Evans touchdown catches. Brandon McManus’ struggles continued, too. McManus pulled a 52-yard field goal attempt wide right midway through the second quarter. The Buccaneers converted that into a 31-yard field goal by Chase McLaughlin for a 13-0 lead. They led 20-0 at the break. The Jaguars have been outscored 58-21 in the first halves during its four-game losing streak.
Lawrence was 17 of 29 passing for 211 yards and a garbage time touchdown pass to Calvin Ridley. Beathard hit Ridley for Jacksonville’s other garbage time touchdown. Ridley had 90 yards on six catches. Evan Engram led the team with 95 yards on 10 catches. Engram lost a fumble, too. Tampa Bay scored 21 points off Jacksonville turnovers.
“It’s really bad, though, that we’ve put this on the field the last three [or] four weeks,” Lawrence said. “It’s a problem and you want to be playing your best football at the end of the season going into the post season hopefully and we’re playing our worst, so we need to find answers and we’ve got to find answers quick.”