The Jacksonville Jaguars were flat-out embarrassed by the Chicago Bears in London on Sunday – as they consistently shot themselves in the foot on the way to a devastating defeat.
As the cameras panned over to the sideline in the dying moments of the game, Jaguars players could be seen sulking, hiding their faces under their towels and just feeling like they’d been truly beaten.
Their loss came in the British capital – in which they have made their second home in recent years – as they were booed as the road team this time away. They’ve fallen to a 1-5 record, after many had predicted them to being a contender in their division.
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Here are three things I noticed while paying attention to their sideline, after sitting just yards away from them for four hours.
Doug Pederson cracks starting to show
The Jaguars head coach has been under severe pressure in recent weeks, securing a much-needed win last weekend to lift to 1-4 after losing four straight. While the win would have given the team, and its fans, a morale boost – that would have flattened completely today.
Throughout the game, Pederson stood alone as he called the plays on offense and watched over his defense – looking exasperated at his team making constant mistakes. Pederson did not get angry with his guys at any point, but seemed dejected as he watched back on individual errors and crushing penalties that allowed the Bears to move up the field.
The Jags head coach really needed a solid performance from his team today, and they did not deliver.
Doug Pederson is undoubtedly under pressure
Trevor Lawrence pressing
When a quarterback throws an interception, they usually go straight to their seat to watch the play again to check the coverage and avoid making the same mistake moving forward. Lawrence did not after throwing his pick to Josh Blackwell.
Lawrence walked straight off the field and sat in his seat, alone, while Pederson checked over the play. Lawrence knew what he had done – he tried to force a pass that was well covered by the Bears in a bid to get his team back in the game. He was pressing.
Besides the one bad throw, Lawrence had a strong performance. Under duress throughout the game, Lawrence threw four perfect balls which his receivers dropped in the endzone – two by Gabe Davis, one drop from Christian Kirk, and one from the rookie Brian Thomas Jr. While Lawrence has been criticized at times this season, he was not the issue for them today, in fact, he was excellent.
Lawrence had a great game, but was asked to do too much
A lack of defense cohesion
The Jaguars were quite simply awful on defense. Just really, really bad. No pass-rush, despite paying Josh Hines-Allen a huge contract extension and selecting Travon Walker with the first-overall pick two years ago, they really should be getting better pressure than what we saw on Sunday.
Their linebackers were exposed in coverage throughout the day, with Cole Kmet scoring two touchdowns on them for 70 yards – while giving up 150 grounds rushing.
Perhaps most worryingly, was what I noticed when they got to the sidelines. There was no communication, there was no juice, there was no leadership. They looked like a team who had run out of ideas – all while shooting themselves in the foot with silly penalties.
The Jaguars need to improve, quickly, or it feels like severe changes will need to be made.
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