By CJ Carlson
It’s been a journey for the Jacksonville Jaguars this season, but it’s now come to an end. The Jaguars were in a win-or-go-home situation entering Week 18 against the Tennessee Titans, and they lost by eight. Jacksonville seemingly had the division under their control a few weeks ago, then lost five of their last six. This led to the Houston Texans securing the division title and making the playoffs. The Wild Card spots will also go to the Buffalo Bills and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
From the start of the game, something was just off about Jacksonville. It seems like this has happened too often this year, but it started with Trevor Lawrence. There’s been questions on whether or not he’s actually the guy under center to bring them a Super Bowl, and those questions will get a lot louder in the offseason. In a must-win game, he threw for 280 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions. He also missed a wide-open Calvin Ridley on a deep ball which would have put the score to 26-28 with a chance to tie it up with the two-point conversion.
The backfield was mediocre, though they were good enough to keep the chains moving. Travis Etienne had 16 rushes for 57 scoreless yards and Tank Bigsby had three carries for 16. This doesn’t feel like a game where the lack of a ground attack was the problem. Jacksonville really just turned the ball over too often early on and gave up a few chunk plays as a defense shortly afterwards.
The Jacksonville Jaguars Had More Negatives Than Positives
The positives were that they racked up two sacks and forced a much-needed interception. The negatives were that they allowed Ryan Tannehill and company to put up 28 points, and they were turned away at the goal line on a failed dive into the end zone. To put that first negative into perspective, the Titans hadn’t scored that many points since Week 14. As a matter of fact, they hadn’t scored over 17 points since Week 14.
Without question, there will be talk about the future of the Jaguars in the offseason. Will they remain confident in Lawrence’s abilities as their franchisee cornerstone? Will they decide to retain head coach Doug Pederson? These are interesting questions that have to be answered, as it almost feels unacceptable that they lost the division this season. Especially due to the Houston Texans just getting a new coach and quarterback this season.
