Jaguars' loss to Bills got even worse due to plane mishap on the trip back home

Losing isn't fun. It's even worse when you get pummeled like the Jacksonville Jaguars did in their 47-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 3. Surely, players and coaches wanted to get home and forget about it. Unfortunately, they couldn't as the Jags experienced an airplane malfunction on the way back home.

Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reported that the Jaguars couldn't fly back to Jacksonville right away because their plane was "dealing with mechanical issues" and couldn't take off until after 1 a.m.

That was surely frustrating. Imagine the vibe while waiting for the plane to take off. Following the loss, the morale on the team was surely low. One look at how things unfolded shows just how embarrassing the Jags were.

The offense couldn't get anything going. Trevor Lawrence went 21-of-38 for 178 yards with one touchdown and one interception. The statline isn't outright dreadful... until you take into account that Jacksonville was 3-of-12 on third downs. Travis Etienne and Tank Bigsby combined for 80 rushing yards. Both averaged 6.0 yards per carry or more. However, it didn't make sense to run the ball while trailing by so much. Speaking of...

The defense had been the saving grace for the Jaguars the past two games. The group gave up a combined 30 points in that span, good for ninth in the league. However, they showed no resistance to the Bills' high-powered offense led by Josh Allen, who tossed four touchdown passes.

While the secondary deserves plenty of flak, the pass rush was also underwhelming. Travon Walker and Josh Hines-Allen, supposedly one of the best tandems in the league, didn't register a single sack. Heck, rookie Maason Smith was the only Jaguar who logged a quarterback hit while Buffalo amassed a combined nine as a team.

Heading into Week 4, the Jags are 0-3 and currently hold the No. 1 spot for the top overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Along with the rival Tennessee Titans and the Cincinnati Bengals, they are the only clubs who have yet to earn a win this season.

What's wrong with the Jaguars (besides their airplane)?

Players must certainly deserve criticism for not executing. Whether it's drops, not carrying out assignments, tackling, or blocking. Having said that, the coaching staff has played a massive role in the team's dreadful performance.

The top brass wanted to keep last year's core in place because they believed that another season together would allow them to build consistency. This was understandable and made sense because the Jags were ravaged by injuries in 2023. However, they haven't shown improvement. In fact, they've regressed. What makes this even more infuriating is that Jacksonville spared no expense to build the current roster.

Apart from giving top-market contracts to Trevor Lawrence, Josh Hines-Allen, and cornerback Tyson Campbell, the Jaguars went into a spending spree in free agency, signing "proven commodities" such as defensive tackle Arik Armstead and center Mitch Morse. So far, neither has had the impact they were expected to have.

Rightly, owner Shad Khan is furious. He trusted the team's brass to bounce back after a disappointing end to 2023 and things have only gotten worse. Mind you, it's not because of a lack of talent. The Jaguars certainly have enough playmakers to compete week in and week out despite their flaws. The issue is that they're currently wandering directionless and playing an uninspired brand of football. Khan must be wondering how can we be so talented, yet so bad.

When it pours, it rains, and there are currently no signs things will get better for the Jaguars in 2024. Maybe that will give Khan a reason to make a midseason change at head coach and start over next year. Maybe it won't. Either way, it's hard to get excited about the current state of the team.

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