Jacksonville Jaguars Blown Out 31-17 by Dallas Cowboys in London: Quick Notes

After hyping up their second game in London in as many years, the Jacksonville Jaguars laid another egg at Wembley field as they got absolutely embarrassed by the Dallas Cowboys 31-17. The Jaguars fell to 1-9 on the season and head into their bye week with very few positives to take away from their emphatic loss.

Despite questions about his availability, Tony Romo played and his back injury was of no concern because the Jacksonville defensive line got nowhere near him the entire game. Romo threw 3 touchdown passes in the first half on the strength of basically unlimited time to throw the ball.

The Jaguars appeared to be in the game until Dez Bryant carried defenders into the endzone en route to a 68 yard touchdown seconds before the first half ended. The early turnovers by Ace Sanders and Denard Robinson coupled with the big plays by Dez Bryant put this game out of reach by halftime.

Here are few other notes from the loss:

• Blake Bortles didn’t throw the costly interceptions (at least until the 4th quarter), but he was awful on Sunday. His ball placement was terrible, especially on short, routine throws. Receivers had to adjust way to much to his throws, and Bortles made the Jaguars settle for 5 yard receptions when they probably could have been for more via run after the catch. Bortles is holding onto the ball too long and appears to be much more hesitant to run than he has been leading up to this game. The bye week is coming at the perfect time for him to sit back and reflect on what he needs to improve on.
• Defensively, the Jaguars were just outclassed by the Dallas offensive line. Tony Romo finished 20/27 for 246 yards and 3 touchdowns, and he rarely had to maneuver within the pocket to make throws. The Jaguars only managed to sack Romo once, and that came late in second half when the game was well out of reach. Chris Clemons continues to be invisible on the field.
• Dez Bryant is a beast, but he was helped out by several missed tackles courtesy of the Jacksonville secondary. He torched Dwayne Gratz on the outside a handful of times and his physicality was just too much once the Cowboys got him the ball down the field.
• Heading back to Jacksonville for the bye week, the Jaguars are going to look back and kick themselves for making way too many mistakes in the first half. Ace Sanders’ muffed punt came at the worst possible time as it killed all the momentum the Jaguars had built up, and the same goes for Denard’s fumble. The Jaguars just aren’t experienced or talented enough to overcome mistakes like that against good teams. They need to minimize those blunders if they want to match last season’s win total.