3 concerning stats from the Jaguars’ loss to the Lions in Week 13

There’s no way to sugarcoat it, the Jacksonville Jaguars were embarrassed by the Detroit Lions in Week 13. Instead of making up ground in the AFC South and strengthening their chances of making the playoffs in 2022, they collapsed.

Head coach Doug Pederson called it by far the Jags’ worst loss of the season and players described the outing as disappointing. Looking at the final score, it’s hard to disagree.

Both Jaguars players and coaches deserve blame for the loss vs. the Lions

This wasn’t a close game and Jacksonville looked overwhelmed and uninspired for most of the game. Pederson said so himself when he met with the local media Monday.

“Quite frankly, the whole thing’s frustrating”, Pederson said. “It was a combination of a lot of things yesterday, not just the defense, throwing the offense and everything but it’s something we just got to continue to work out, continue to put these guys in positions”.

“It’s on the players to understand their role and understand their job. Coaches have to look at it from, ‘are we doing too much? Are we doing not enough?’ If we need to pull it back, we pull it back. But there are just too many little things that show up in games that shouldn’t be happening this late in the year”, Pederson said.

Basically, both the players and the coaching staff failed to do their job against Detroit. And looking back, it’s hard to find many positives to build on. Meanwhile, it’s easy to spot all the things that went wrong for a Jaguars team that is 4-8 and probably without much to play besides finishing strong. With that in mind, here are three concerning stats from Week 13.

3. The Jaguars had 5 dropped passes vs. the Lions

Trevor Lawrence didn’t have an outstanding performance against Detroit but he wasn’t dreadful either. The fact that he suffered what was a painful injury to his lower leg before halftime and still managed to get back on the field speaks volumes about his toughness. The sophomore finished the game with a mundane 54.84 percent completion rate for 179 yards with one touchdown and no interception.

However, Lawrence’s final stat line would’ve looked better if he had gotten help from his supporting cast. Christian Kirk notwithstanding, most of the Jaguars’ skill-position players were a non-factor against Detroit. The Jags got off to a bad start, with running back Travis Etienne’s fumbling on the second play of the game and handing the Lions their first touchdown of the game.

Similarly, drops by Zay Jones (3), Evan Engram (1), and Jamal Agnew (1) stalled drives. All things considered, Jones was the worst of the bunch. His 36.2 Pro Football Focus overall grade was one of the worst among Jaguars players in Week 13. What’s worse is that the former East Carolina Pirate was coming off a game in which he set career highs in catches (11) and passing yards (14).

Jones has been dealing with a chest injury and Doug Pederson says that might’ve played a role in his less-than-stellar performance:

“Even with the nature of Zay’s injury last week, there were some times where he practiced but didn’t get some of the reps that he would normally get during the week”, Pederson said.

Ok, that makes sense but does that justify having a bad game? If Jones wasn’t a full-go, why didn’t he sit out the game? Simply, you can’t have that many drops and expect to find a rhythm on offense.

2. The Jaguars allowed Lions QB Jared Goff to complete 75% of his passes

Jared Goff is a solid quarterback but you will be hard-pressed to find someone that genuinely believes he’s in the same echelon as Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen. However, the Jaguars made Goff look like the second coming of Peyton Manning in Week 13.

Goff went 31-of-41 passes for 340 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. Surprisingly, it felt like his numbers were much better watching him help but it also helped that the Jaguars put no resistance and allowed him to move the ball at will.

Not surprisingly, the Jaguars’ secondary didn’t post favorable Pro Football Focus overall grades. Cornerback Tyson Campbell, who is one of the team’s most promising players posted a 70.0 grade but he also gave up five passes on six targets for 47 yards and one touchdown. Darious Williams and Tevaughn Campbell didn’t fare much better, giving up a combined nine receptions for 125 yards and earning PFF grades of 53.4 and 43.6respectively.

But it wasn’t just the Jaguars’ cornerbacks, their safety group also struggled to slow down the Lions’ passing game. Of course, Detroit deserves praise for not taking the foot off the gas pedal and exploring mismatches. Amon-Ra St. Brown and DJ Chark Jr. proved to be for the Jacksonville defense, hauling in a combined 16 receptions for 112 yards with two touchdowns.

Having spent the first four years of his career with the Jags, Chark dismissed the idea this was a revenge game, but he surely feels pleased he had a productive outing against his former team.

1. The Jaguars put no resistance and the Lions didn’t punt a single time

One of the biggest storylines before the game was that the Lions were planning to use rookie wide receiver Jameson Williams as a gunner on special teams. This was a baffling decision when you consider that the Alabama product had spent most of the year recovering from an ACL injury he sustained in January. This prompted analyst Howie Long to say that this is the kind of thing behind Detroit’s long-time struggles.

But Williams ended up not playing gunner because the Lions didn’t punt a single time in the entire game.

This is the type of stat teams don’t want to be associated with and it will leave a stench looming over the Jaguars. How bad does your defense have to be to fail to stop an offense even once? The secondary has been rightfully under scrutiny but the defensive front shouldn’t get a pass.

Rookie linebacker Chad Muma had 1.5 sacks and defensive tackle DaVon Hamilton registered 0.5 but the Jaguars consistently failed to apply pressure up front (consistently inconsistent?) and Jared Goff had plenty of time to find his receivers. The lack of big plays also hurt, and so does coaching.

Doug Pederson told the media Monday that defensive coordinator Mike Caldwell has done a good job in his first year on the job but he also has room for improvement.

“Mike’s done a good job of organizing a really keeping things together. But on the same side of that, we’ve got to do a better job of coaching and teaching and making sure everyone understands their jobs”, Pederson.

So both the coaches and the players have their work cut out if they want to avoid another collapse in what’s left of the 2022 season.