Jacksonville Jaguars Lose to NFL Referees, Also to San Diego Chargers 24 – 6

Oct 20, 2013; Jacksonville, FL, USA; San Diego Chargers cornerback Shareece Wright (29) is penalized for interference after making contact with Jacksonville Jaguars wide receiver Justin Blackmon (14) before the pass got to him in the second quarter of their game at EverBank Field. Mandatory Credit: Phil Sears-USA TODAY Sports

The Jacksonville Jaguars matchup with the San Diego Chargers today had all the makings of an upset and the Jaguars first win of the season. Unfortunately, the continued ineptness on offense combined with the horrific officiating meant an all-too-similar result. The Jaguars’ opportunities to win a game this season are dwindling and it’s not realistic at this point to expect them to get a win. The Chargers did whatever they wanted on offense – the Jaguar defense couldn’t get any pressure against a makeshift offensive line. Chad Henne still can’t put up points despite a nice set of weapons around him. The 2014 draft can’t come soon enough.

Here are a couple notes from today’s game:

The Good

• The running game actually seemed relatively effective in a limited number of snaps. Jaguar running backs only got 11 carries combined, but they managed about 5 yards a rush. Unfortunately, as soon as San Diego built a big lead the Jaguars completely abandoned running the ball.

The Bad

• Chad Henne just isn’t very good. His stat line looks respectable but he isn’t even playing at the level of a competent game manager. He has plenty of talent at the skill positions but he still couldn’t manage a touchdown.
• The secondary played very poorly again and the young safeties in the backend were exposed. Josh Evans and Johnathan Cyprien are still going through growing pains and it’s leading to coverage breakdowns and big plays for opposing teams. The potential is there, it’s just not very pretty right now.

The Because Jaguars

• The referees  today were the only group on the field worse than the Jaguars. They failed to review a pretty obvious play with less than two minutes in the half where Keenan Allen was down. Then they failed to overturn a clear fumble in favor of the Jaguars despite overwhelming video evidence. The Jaguars aren’t going to beat anyone if they need to overcome the officials too.

These games are getting less fun to watch, but there are some pieces in place for the Jaguars to be good if and when they get a quarterback. Just keep watching and Stand United.

We’ll have a more thorough analysis of the game with Pro Football Focus grades later in the week.

– Daniel Lago

Yell at me on Twitter @dlago89