Jacksonville Jaguars Week 12: The Day After

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The Jacksonville Jaguars continued their streak of poor performances against the Indianapolis Colts under head coach Gus Bradley, as they were soundly defeated 23-3 in Indy yesterday.

From the get go, it appeared the Jaguars were digging in for a good game, all on the merits of some outstanding play on defense. Facing one of the hottest quarterbacks in the NFL, the Jaguars absolutely dominated the line of scrimmage against an overmatched Colts offensive line. Unfortunately, the Jaguars were a completely different story on the other side of the ball. Rookie quarterback Blake Bortles continues to regress, and he had arguably his worst performance as a pro on Sunday.

It was a frustrating and disheartening loss for the franchise and there are  plenty of reasons to be upset, but for now let’s look back at yesterday’s game and focus on 3 takeaways.

1. This offense is fundamentally broken

The Jaguars wasted a fantastic effort by their defense on Sunday by not capitalizing whatsoever on offense. There are numerous reasons the Jaguars couldn’t even crack 200 total yards on offense, but it starts and ends with the quarterback. After throwing a costly interception on his first pass attempt of the game, Bortles appeared to be a shell of himself. Whether it was Bortles or the playcalling, the Jaguars made no attempt to push the ball down the field after the interception. Of his 24 attempts, only 3 of Bortles’ passes traveled more than 10 yards in the air, and 10 of them were screens behind the line of scrimmage. The complete lack of a threat to throw the ball deep made it almost impossible for Denard Robinson and Toby Gerhart to get going in the running game. The lack of a running game put the offense in difficult third and long situations.

Fundamentally, the Jaguars are broken on offense, and there doesn’t appear to be any chance of it being fixed this season. And that sucks.

2. The Jaguars defense is good enough

Not only is the Jaguars defense good enough to keep them in games late, they are good enough to make this team competitive against almost anyone in the NFL. I’ve been a vocal critic of free agent signing Chris Clemons, but there was very little not to like about his monster performance yesterday. In the first quarter alone he had 3 sacks on Andrew Luck, and his forced fumble on the first drive of the game was exactly the kind of turnover the Jaguars needed to have a chance in the game. Even more encouraging was how the defense came out a few minutes after that turnover. The defense had to immediately return to the field in a tough spot after Bortles threw an interception, and they held strong, forcing the Colts to settle for a long field goal.

The defense wilted a bit in the second half, but Andrew Luck and his offense are eventually going to make a few plays. The defense is not the least bit at fault today.

3. Special teams is a consistent problem

So far we’ve identified a putrid offense and a very good defense, but the special teams unit might be the most disturbing component of the Jaguars. The Jaguars gave up a few big returns to well-past-his-prime kick return specialist Josh Cribbs, and they lucked out on an 82-yard return touchdown that was called back thanks to a holding penalty. As effective as the Colts were on returns, the Jaguars were equally ineffective. Ace Sanders only gained 3 yards on his 2 punt returns, and the Jaguars didn’t have a chance to return any of the kickoffs.

In what has become a borderline laughable trend, the Jaguars saw another field goal get partially blocked, but this time it still went in. In what should have been a routine 28-yard field goal, Josh Scobee saw his kick blocked at the line and wobble through the uprights.

Overall, the Jaguars are just bad right now, and they were downright awful yesterday. There’s no need to sugarcoat it – the Jaguars right now are the worst team in the league.