Jaguars come under pressure at prime time

ORCHARD PARK, NY – Senior Editor John Oehser, Senior Correspondent Brian Sexton and Team Reporter Kainani Stevens provide brief comments on the Jaguars’ 47-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills in a Week 3 2024 game at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, NY, on Monday

John Oehser, Jaguars senior editor…

1. That was really hard. Monday’s game was so one-sided that there was little to analyze. What can you say about such an important prime-time game in which a team scored touchdowns on all five first-half possessions and outscored their opponents 288-70? With that in mind, you’d expect the Jaguars to come out Monday with a lot of energy and play well to start. That’s what you’d expect in front of a prime-time crowd. That’s especially what you’d expect when a win means putting an 0-2 start behind them and resetting the tone for the season. The Jaguars didn’t even come close to that performance on Monday. They started listless for the second week in a row. The Cleveland Browns could only parlay that listlessness into a 13-3 lead, and the Jaguars slowly clawed their way back into the game. The Bills are a strong team that was able to turn the Jaguars’ slow start into a stunning 31-point halftime lead that seemed – and was – insurmountable. “I feel like the guys are ready,” said head coach Doug Pederson. “I feel like there’s energy left at the end of the week. Then it doesn’t translate to the game. That’s the part that bothers me. You see how hard they work, what they put into the week. That doesn’t translate. Those are the things I have to figure out.” What should I analyze? Not much. Nothing to do except look forward and hope it gets better. Somehow.
2. What now? That’s a fair question, and Pederson admitted as much after the Jaguars’ ninth loss in their last 10 games. The Jaguars are now 0-3, two games behind the Houston Texans in the AFC South. “We’re three weeks in now, and right now we’re not very good,” Pederson said. “That’s who we are right now, and it’s not very good.” Pederson pointed to the next two games as AFC South games — Sunday at Houston and at home against the Indianapolis Colts in Week 5 — and if the Jaguars win those games, they can actually get into the AFC South quickly. But he’s also acknowledged multiple times that the Jaguars aren’t a good team right now — and he said in particular that there could be changes this week. “I don’t think you necessarily go in the opposite direction,” he said. “There have to be changes. Whether it’s game design, personnel … Everything’s on the table. Let’s say it. Those are all things I need to look at and things we need to consider as a team.” It’s a short week. It could also be a news week. Stay tuned.