Jacksonville Jaguars on Pace to Have Worst Defensive Season in NFL History

Yes, you read that headline right. As first pointed out by Chris Burke at SI.com, the Jacksonville Jaguars are on pace to have the worst defensive season in the history of the NFL. That comment is hidden in the middle of Burke’s recent post but bears some further analysis. Keep in mind, this is the worst four game start on defense in Jaguars history as well.

The measurements that Burke is using are yards allowed and points allowed. Both are excellent measurements of a unit’s effectiveness. Per Burke’s calculations, the 2014 Jacksonville Jaguars are set to surpass the 1981 Baltimore Colts in points allowed and the 2012 New Orleans Saints in yards allowed.

To give you an idea of just how ridiculous those records are, the 1981 Colts allowed a total of 533 points and the 2012 Saints allowed 7,042 yards. If we use the Jaguars’ 2013 season’s offense as an average bench mark (and let’s be honest, the offense hasn’t been much better or worse in recent years) it would take them roughly 2.1 seasons to accumulate that many points and 1.3 seasons to gain that many yards. Even with Blake Bortles under quarterback the Jaguars would not be able to compete with that.

But the 2014 Jaguars are actually even worse.

Based on Burke’s calculations the defense is set to allow 608 points on the season and a whopping 7,220 yards.

Let’s keep in mind that the two records the Jaguars are on pace to break were set by different teams. By “earning” both of these dubious honors, the 2014 Jacksonville Jaguars will go down in history as the worst defense, bar none.

If that doesn’t motivate an underachieving unit to get back to form, I don’t know what will. Head coach Gus Bradley should have one of those thermometers like we had in fourth grade up on the wall to measure how close the team comes to these records. The Jaguars are a pretty bleak team, but Blake Bortles is breathing some life back into the black and teal. Now if only he could breathe some life into the defense.

There are some positives, namely the league-leading pass rush. But the holes far outnumber the positives and suck them down like a literal black hole in space. The secondary in particular is abysmal. Changes are still being made (and rightly so), but it’s apparent that the safeties have been overmatched on pretty much every down. The secondary gives up big play after big play, but the Jaguars are also hurt by poor tackling and from incredibly poor coverage from their linebacking corps. All of these must improve.

The Jaguars simply cannot be competitive with this historically terrible defense. In order to give the team a fighting chance they simply must get back to form. That’s on Gus Bradley more than anyone.