Jacksonville Jaguars lose second straight to Tennessee Titans to end 2017 season: Quick Notes

The Jacksonville Jaguars played their starters in week 17 but they still lost for the second time this year to the Tennessee Titans.

It was a sloppy, ugly game on both sides as the Jacksonville Jaguars lost to the Tennessee Titans 15-10. While the game meant nothing for the Jaguars in terms of seeding in the playoffs, it meant everything to the Titans who needed to win to get into the postseason.

It would be disingenous to say the Titans “showed up” – they did not look good, but they looked better than a Jacksonville team that failed to get the ball into the endzone on offense.

Here are some quick notes from the Jaguars week 17 loss:

• Blake Bortles did not have a great game and he will be the focus as we head into the postseason, but he certainly wasn’t the only problem today. The Jaguars clearly missed Cam Robinson as Josh Wells struggled mightily at left tackle. He gave up pressures early and it clearly affected Bortles throughout the game. When Bortles did have time, he actually made some good throws. Unfortunately, the most important throw he made was dropped by rookie wide receiver Dede Westbrook. Fellow rookie receiver Keelan Cole also made a crucial mistake, fumbling on a crossing route deep in Jacksonville territory. The Jacksonville offense never really got into a groove after that dropped touchdown and it made the rest of the game a slog.
• Going back to Bortles, it’s clear he presses when the Jaguars need him to make all of the plays. His interception was a classic Bortles back-foot throw that made absolutely no sense and he had a few other head scratchers.
• The hope going into next week’s playoff game is that the coaching staff kept the gameplan vanilla and didn’t do anything exotic going into this week 17 game. Otherwise, it’s hard to explain why this offense has faltered in almost every aspect for two weeks straight.
• On defense, the Jaguars did their part. Yes, they gave up a big first down to Marcus Mariota late in the 4th quarter, but they consistently forced Tennessee into field goals after turnovers. They got pressure on Mariota and kept Derrick Henry in check outside of the screen pass that went for a touchdown. Even with the team rotating defensive lineman throughout the game, they played well. And heck, they scored the only touchdown of the day for the Jaguars.
• Ultimately, this game didn’t matter for the Jaguars and it’s hard to tell how much that played into their mentality, preparation, and execution today. The offense was clearly out of sorts and it’ll be interesting to see what they do next week to try and get into a groove.