Saints 13, Jaguars 6: 5 observations from disastrous Week 6 loss
The Jacksonville Jaguars fell to 2-4 on the season, and 1-2 at home in TIAA Bank Field, following a merciless 13-6 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.
Simply put, this loss hurts badly for the Jaguars 2019 outlook. It came on the same afternoon the Houston Texans won a road game in Kansas City
1. The rookie quarterback looked like a rookie quarterback
For the first time since becoming the Jaguars starting quarterback, Gardner Minshew looked overwhelmed from start to finish. Sure, the wide receivers struggled to get separation and a few no-calls on defensive pass interference hurt the offense, but there is no making excuses for Minshew. For the first time this season, he was simply bad.
From looking restless in the pocket to simply missing throws, it seemed like the Saints had Minshew figured out from the jump. And Saints head coach Sean Payton essentially said as much after the game.
“Our objective was to make him play in that phone booth and give him looks defensively we felt like he hasn’t seen before. I thought we did a good job of that.”
Minshew will need a bounce back game next week against the Cincinnati Bengals, but the hope is that this game was simply him hitting his rookie wall and not a sign of things to come.
2. Doug Marrone needs to figure out how to make his team perform consistently before it costs him his job
In every game this season outside of the Jaguars Week 3 victory against the Tennessee Titans on Sept. 19, Jacksonville has not had any of their units clicking at the same time. Whether it is a game where the offense lighting up the scoreboard while the defense has more holes in its coverage than swiss cheese, or a game like today where the defense plays largely lights out but the offense has shades of the Blakes Bortles era, the Jaguars can not put together a complete game as a team.
Head coach Doug Marrone is cognizant of this issue and to his credit he takes full accountability for the issue which has derailed the Jaguars.
"I’ve got to get this team to play well in all three phases. That’s going to be the formula for us to win football games. One game, the offense plays well, defense maybe not, special teams maybe not, things of that nature, you know, the turnover battle. When you are inconsistent, and you can’t play well in all three phrases, it’s very difficult to win. You’ll be in some close games. You might come back and win, but it makes it difficult. It starts with me. I’ve got to do a better job."
But while Marrone taking the blame for his team's massive inconsistencies is the right thing to do, it still doesn't fix the problem. If the next 10 games go like the last six have, the Jaguars are going to continue to drop games. And if Marrone loses his job, he will be able to point to his teams inability to make it all come together as a reason why.
3. Najee Goode was a noticeable boost for the Jaguars defense
A week after Christian McCaffrey absolutely shredded the Jaguars run defense and made rookie Quincy Williams look completely out of his depth, the Jaguars decided to make a switch in their front seven.
For the first time this season, Williams sat on the bench and veteran Najee Goode was given the start at weakside linebacker next to Myles Jack. And despite the Saints running for 104 yards thanks to some late carries to close the game, the Jaguars defense was simply better with Goode in the lineup.
Goode was typically in the right position, didn't miss tackles in space and was dependable in coverage. Jack had some high praise for his teammate following the game, and it was all deserving.
"I thought Najee [Goode] did really good. Being a veteran, he knows ball so me and him on the field, we can talk things out. He alerts me on concepts, and I was alerting him on stuff. It was kind of like having a second middle linebacker on the field," Jack said.
4. Jaguars are still looking for a receiver outside of DJ Chark who can consistently hurt defenses
The Jaguars entire offense knew what the Saints defense was going to try to do on Sunday: take DJ Chark out of the game by giving him extra attention. But even though the Jaguars had an entire week to prepare for this reality, it didn't matter.
"We knew that DJ [Chark Jr.] was going to draw double-coverage, and we have to execute in other spots. They played a little different than what we expected. We expected them to double DJ, but we didn’t expect them to play two-man all-day basically. We have to win versus two-man [coverage]," Chris Conley said after the game.
Conley and Dede Westbrook each had their struggles against the Saints stingy secondary despite Chark receiving the bulk of the attention. Neither was able to consistently get open, adding on to Minshew's struggles to get anything going.
Simply put, the Jaguars need that second guy who can threaten a defense and consistently win one-on-one coverages. Westbrook and Conley are good with the ball in their hands, but they aren't keeping any cornerbacks up at night.
The Jaguars have finally found their No. 1 wideout. Now they need to find someone who can pick up the slack when he isn't able to.
5. Challenging pass interference is a wasted timeout no matter how strong the case is for a flag
With 11:00 to go in the game, Minshew threw an errant pass in Conley's direction but the Saints defensive back hit Conley well before the ball got there. It was clear as day it should have been called defensive pass interference, but it wasn't called.
Thinking an extra replay would help his case, Marrone threw the challenge flag. But, like every other coach who has tried to challenge such a play in 2019, Marrone came up short. It was interference, but the call wasn't ever going to be changed. It hasn't been all season.
No matter how right the challenge looks, it is never going to be worth it. Not in 2019. The referees simply refuse to overturn the initial missed calls, making it a wasted effort. I understand why Marrone did what he did, but it was a battle he lost before it even began.
