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Struggling Jaguars Continue to Beat Themselves in Must-Win Games

The Jaguars once again were their own worst enemy, and once again it happened in a game the Jaguars couldn't afford.

With the number of rookies and injuries the Jacksonville Jaguars have, it is hard enough to attempt to beat opposing teams week in and week out. 

It is even harder when the 1-4 Jaguars are doing as much to lose the game as their opponents are doing to win it. 

For the last several years, the Jaguars have faltered in must-win games. 2018 in Dallas, last year vs. the Houston Texans in London and today's mistake-filled 30-14 loss to the Texans serve as the best recent examples. Every time the Jaguars simply need to make a play or need to find a way to win, they have done the opposite in recent years. 

The Jaguars entered today with an abundance of challenges, but that is the nature of the NFL. Nobody cares about the excuses, only the results. And today, the Jaguars' result was a historic loss, which has become more than a pattern at this point.

Entering a game against an 0-4 division rival that just fired its head coach, the Jaguars looked like the inferior and outmatched team for nearly all 60 minutes. The Texans have been one of the worst teams in football in 2020, but things were easy more often than not against the Jaguars. 

A loss to Houston means the Jaguars are now sitting in the last place of the AFC South after the easiest three-game stretch of their season, and the Jaguars' own season is officially on life support.

Over the last three weeks, the Jaguars have played teams with combined 0-8-1 records entering the game. Despite this, the Jaguars lost each of these three games against winless teams, with two of those losses coming by double digits. No team in NFL history has ever done that before, for context. 

"I don't know. That's a good question," Jaguars quarterback Gardner Minshew II said after the game when asked about solutions to the four-game losing streak.

"We were actually just talking about that in the locker room, trying to figure out what it is, what's missing, because we have moments where we feel really good about it, moments that it just all goes to s--- kind of, and we just got to figure out how to be more consistent and keep moving forward.” 

The number one thing the Jaguars need to fix to get back into the win column? Stop helping the other team reach the finish line first. 

Just like last week, the Jaguars had ample opportunities to win Sunday's game. In fact, they had even more chances to take control this Sunday than they did in Cincinnati last week. But even when the Jaguars are given the game on a platter, they can't get over the hump -- at least not in the Doug Marrone and Minshew era. 

Today, the Jaguars wasted as many big chances to take control of the momentum as they have in every other game combined this season. Here is a quick rundown. 

  • On a third-down from the Texans' 3-yard line, the Jaguars lost three yards on a pass to Laviska Shenault. On the next play, kicker Stephen Hauschka missed a 24-yard field goal.
  • After a Sidney Jones interception, the Jaguars got the ball to Houston's 21-yard line. Right tackle Jawaan Taylor was called for a third-down holding, leading to Hauschka's field goal attempt getting pushed back. Hauschka would go on to miss the 49-yard field goal. 
  • After Keelan Cole returned a kickoff 40 yards at the start of the second half, the Jaguars went three-and-out and were forced to punt the ball.
  • With about 7:00 left in the third quarter, Jarrod Wilson intercepted Watson and returned it to Houston's 27-yard line. The Jaguars would move the ball to Houston's eight-yard line but offensive coordinator Jay Gruden called a halfback pass on third down. Running back James Robinson would fumble away the ball after the only route on the play was covered. 

Each of these plays presented the Jaguars a great chance to make a game-changing play, but the Jaguars got in their own way every time. As Marrone would state after the game, these crucial plays are what ultimately decided the game. 

“Yeah, that was a key to the game, not being able to take advantage of the turnovers or the kickoff return," Marrone said. 

"But that's what I'm talking about where we move the ball at times and look good and then you have opportunities and you need to take advantage of it because if you don't take advantage of it, and then this is what happens. The momentum swings the other way and it's tough to capture them. When you have a time where you have the situations like we have had, especially after the turnovers or having the ball down there on the two- or three-yard line, you got to turn those into points. We weren't able to do that, so that's on all of us.” 

As things stand today, the Jaguars are hardly good enough to consistently beat their opponents on their own. But even worse, the Jaguars are currently unable to overcome themselves. Winning teams overcome mistakes and take advantage of opportunities, but the Jaguars are currently unable to do either.