Jaguars cannot keep up with Giants, extend losing streak to 4 games

Good teams find ways to win and bad clubs can’t get out of their own way. Guess which category the Jacksonville Jaguars fall in following their 23-17 loss to the New York Giants in Week 7. The Jags were in control of the game in the first half but self-inflicted wounds once again held him back.

Jacksonville entered the second half trailing but got the lead back in their first drive thanks to a quarterback sneak by Trevor Lawrence. Down 18-11, the G-Men trusted quarterback Daniel Jones to make plays with both his arm and his feet. The Duke product had no trouble running against a porous Jags’ defense that couldn’t get to him and struggled to apply pressure. On 11 carries/scrambles, he logged 107 rushing yards with one touchdown.

Jones ended the game with a completion rate of 66 percent for 200 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions. His Jaguars counterpart wasn’t bad but wasn’t great either. Basically, Lawrence didn’t lose the game but he didn’t do nearly enough to win it. At times, he made sound decisions with the football but he also overthrow several passes, many of them in key downs. He went 22-of-43 for 310 yards with one rushing touchdown and no interceptions.

Travis Etienne scored his first career touchdown in the NFL but he also had a crucial fumble near New York’s goal line. Hindsight is 20/20 but a touchdown instead of a turnover in that drive would have been huge for the Jags, and maybe just maybe, they would have won the game. Similarly, the Jags got to the Giants’ red zone early in the fourth quarter but instead of kicking the field goal and taking the points, head coach Doug Pederson chose to go for it on fourth down and New York got the ball back on downs.

The Jaguars are finding ways to lose close games

To add insult to injury, the Jaguars had one last chance to win the game. They had around one minute to march down the field and were even aided by two penalties against the Giants. Left tackle Cam Robinson was called for a holding of his own that moved back and Lawrence wasn’t particularly accurate. He did find wide receiver Marvin Jones Jr. on a 28-yard pass and later completed a throw to Christian Kirk that fell just one yard short of the goal line.

Penalties didn’t help the Jaguars’ cause. They were flagged a staggering 13 times. Simply. you won’t win many games if you can’t play disciplined football. Although all the Jags’ losses have been close this season, they haven’t been able to play complementary football. Against the Houston Texans and the Philadelphia Eagles, Lawrence turned the ball over. The defense couldn’t stop the Indianapolis Colts last week.

Now, penalties, penalties, and a lack of takeaways have extended the Jags’ losing streak to four.