Back in the offseason, it looked like the Jacksonville Jaguars were onto something. They hired Urban Meyer to be their head coach and the team’s brass made several changes to the roster. Moreover, they used the top overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft to take quarterback Trevor Lawrence.
It’s fair to say the Jaguars looked better than they did in last year’s offseason, at least on paper but then the regular season came, and things went south. Right now, they’re 2-10 and are coming off a 37-7 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. It seems unlikely that they’re going to run the table and win the remaining five games in the schedule. What they can do is take a deep look at all the areas they need to fix, so they can address them in the offseason, and it all starts with Meyer.
The Jaguars head coach has made several baffling decisions in his short stint. One of the many is not knowing what’s happening during the game. For the second consecutive week, running back James Robinson remained on the sidelines after fumbling the ball. Veteran Carlos Hyde took his spot in the lineup and finished the game with more carries (9).
Meyer met with the local media after the Jaguars’ 37-7 loss and once again said he “doesn’t micromanage” the game when asked why Robinson wasn’t on the field after the fumble. The head coach added you would have to ask running backs coach Bernie Parmalee why the team went with Hyde.
As the leader of the team, Meyer must take ownership, take responsibility when things go wrong and share credit when they go right. He can’t simply wash his hands and say “I don’t know” or that “he doesn’t know the answers”. Also, he needs to know what everyone is doing. Sure, nobody likes that boss that micromanages a team but his approach isn’t working, so he will need to get back to the drawing board and make adjustments to his coaching style.
Maybe Meyer needs to have a meeting with the team captains or talk to New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, whom he’s acquainted with. The one thing that is clear is that he needs to figure out what needs to change next offseason.
Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence doesn’t want to hear the positives.
Nobody likes losing. You can learn from it and it can make you a better person/player but that doesn’t make it any less disappointing. That’s why it’s refreshing to hear Trevor Lawrence talk after the Jags’ loss.
The former Clemson Tiger told the media Los Angeles is a heck of a team but went on to say that the Jaguars can’t win games if they can’t move the ball, score points, and stop opposing teams from finding the end zone. He added there’ not much to get hyped up about.
"I don’t really want to talk about the things that are there positive right now. We got to play better. Even if there are a couple of things that we’re doing well, we got to do a lot of things, a lot more things well to win games."
Lawrence is taking the right approach. The Jags aren’t a good team on either side of the ball. What’s the point of saying they’re playing excellent pass defense, or having good field position if you can’t score, let alone win games? The rookie passer himself told the media he doesn’t want to talk about any positives and he’s right. There aren’t going to be many things in your favor when you lose 37-7. That’s like failing a test but getting a compliment for having nice handwriting.
You can’t blame Meyer for trying to stay positive but the message becomes irrelevant after a while if you can’t rack up some wins. Instead, Lawrence is taking the bull by the horns and isn’t trying to embellish things. Moreover, he’s making everyone accountable, not just him.
"We got to really take a look at this, and along with the other games, and we got to figure something out because we all play better than that. We’re not gonna win the games if we can move the ball better than that. So it’s all of us it’s all in players, it’s on coaches, it’s everyone."
Lawrence says he needs to do a better job but so does everyone else, including the coaching staff. You could make the case he should focus on himself and can’t point fingers but the truth is that the team needs accountability. As the team captain, and the quarterback — the most important player — he owns that to his teammates.
Both the Jaguars’ offense and defense didn’t do their part in Week 13.
Dawuane Smoot is having a good year and looking back, the decision to re-sign him in the offseason was a good one. He’s appeared in all 12 games this season and has logged four sacks, 24 total tackles, and one forced fumble as a part of the defensive line rotation. The veteran edge rusher also met with the local media after the loss and talked about having to do a better job, “keep doing it, keep fighting, keep trying to turn this thing around”.
Also, Smoot took a slight jab at the offense, directly or indirectly. He noted the defense can only do so much but they can’t perform at a high level when they’re spending more time than they should on the field.
"I would just say like a defense, we were out there for a while and there’s only so much we can do. We were out there for 60-plus plays and you’re just like back to back to back. Cooper Kupp is an amazing player, he’s eventually gonna get off, he gets paid just like we do. We contain them as long as we could and feel like our guys in the back end did a really good job."
The Jaguars’ defense was on the field for 66 plays while the offense fail to sustain drives. Of course, it goes both ways. Defensive coordinator Joe Cullen’s unit allowed a season-high 37 points and that’s not on the offense. The Jaguars’ front seven didn’t register a turnover and sacked quarterback Matthew Stafford just once. Moreover, they gave up 24 first downs and struggled to stop the offense.
Contrary to what Meyer told the media, the Jaguars’ pass defense wasn’t great against the pass, and had no answer for Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp, who hauled in eight receptions for 129 yards and one touchdown. Moreover, Sony Michael ended the game with 121 rushing yards on 24 carries even though Los Angeles had struggled to run the ball in recent weeks.
Both the offense and their defense have their work cut out and if they want to avoid another loss to the Tennessee Titans in Week 15, they must do something and quick.