Doug Pederson discusses shocking reason Jaguars lost to the Texans and are 0-4

Following the 24-20 loss to the Houston Texans in Week 4, head coach Doug Pederson was testy and even threw players under the bus to protect offensive coordinator Press Taylor. To his credit, he had a calmer demeanor when he met with the local media the day after and took the opportunity to discuss the biggest reason the Jaguars are 0-4 to start the 2024 season.

Pederson told the local beat that the Jaguars have had trouble finishing games, pointing out that their breakdown against the Texans came late.

"That's a great question because the things I talk about to them we talk about finish a lot, especially in sports, right?" Pederson said when asked why the Jaguars are having trouble closing. "You have to finish, and you got to finish the play. You got to finish the series, the quarter, the half, the game, ultimately. Really, yesterday, our breakdown was the end of the game."

"Offensively, we didn't stay on the field, convert off on third down to stay on the field, and then defensively, we couldn't get off the field. As great as the defense played in the second half. I think it was five drives, five punts, it was that one drive where we couldn't get off the field and make enough plays there. So those are things, again that have kept us from winning these games."

On the other hand, Pederson doesn't think everything is gloom and doom. Later in the exchange with the press corps, he went over the positives he's seen on both sides of the ball.

"Offensively, the run game has been positive, right? That's maybe 158 yards or so yesterday. Tank had a couple nice runs yesterday. I do like the fact, even though we may not be connecting on everything, I do like the fact that we are getting guys open down the field, our explosive passes. We missed our fair show yesterday, and it hurt us. But getting BT open down the field and Christian yesterday. We had Gabe a couple times these last couple of weeks. That stuff is very positive."

Pederson continued, "Now, do we have to improve pitch and catch better? Yes, we do. Defensively, with the amount of young players that are playing, you're not seeing a ton of like first progression, wide open quarterback, put my foot in the ground, throw it to the open guy. Usually, the quarterback has to move or get to a second, third guy. So we're, we're covering guys up."

"Now, did we make a coverage assignment, a blown assignment in Miami? Yeah, we did. You know, all things we have fixed since, yes, so there's a lot of positive that comes out of that kind of stuff, right? The effort is there."

Here's Pederson's full exchange with the local media, which lasted nearly 20 minutes.

The Jaguars keep suffering self-inflicted wounds in the 2024 NFL season

Doug Pederson is right. The Jaguars have played well at times but have ultimately lost because of self-inflicted wounds. In the season opener, they came close to putting down the Miami Dolphins. But leading and late in the fourth quarterback, running back Travis Etienne lost a fumble that would tip the scale in the Phins' favor.

In Week 2, the Jaguars got off to start the game and only woke up until the second half. By then, it was too little, too late. The loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 3 was truly the only loss that wasn't close to competitive. This is to say that Pederson isn't wrong that there are plenty of positives but they have certainly not been enough to help the team overcome its shortcomings.

In the end, a loss is a loss regardless of how close (or lopsided) it is. If the Jaguars want to have a chance of righting the ship — something that is getting gradually harder — and head coach Doug Pederson wants to have a chance to salvage his job, they'll need to start closing games.

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