Doug Pederson Wants Jaguars to Improve Performance at Home in Second Half

After a wild eight weeks that saw the Jacksonville Jaguars play in five different stadiums in five games, the Jaguars are returning to a sense of normalcy after their bye week.

At least, they hope so.

The Jaguars will play four of their next six games at home, including a Week 10 home contest vs. the San Francisco 49ers. Common logic would be that a big stretch of home games during the second-half of the season is a good thing, but the Jaguars still have work to do to ensure they can make their homefield advantage count.

“First thing is the schedule gets a little more normal for us compared to the last half of the season. We haven’t played our best football at home which is crazy," Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said on Wednesday.

"Those two early games that we didn’t play very well, things we have to do better. We are playing in front of our fans, we are at home, our stadium, and our locker room. We need to feed off the energy, obviously off the crowd, and we need to play our best football. Especially in the second half of the season. If you want that home field advantage or try to play for home field advantage, you have to do it at home, that’s why they call it home field advantage. We just got to focus in on that and to continue to improve and play our best ball down the stretch”.

To date, the only games the Jaguars have lost this season have both come in front of their home fans. The Jaguars lost 17-9 in Week 2 vs. the Kansas City Chiefs, with the Jaguars' offense behind held out of the endzone for the second time in the Pederson era and the first time since Week 5 in 2022.

Then in Week 3, the Jaguars lost to an injury-riddled Houston Texans team in a 37-17 blowout that was the second worst loss in terms of point differential in the Pederson era. The entire Jaguars' team had a hand in that one, with critical mistakes coming from all three units.

Since then, though, the Jaguars have gotten on a roll. They have won five games in a row, including a 37-20 win over the Indianapolis Colts in Week 6 that saw them force four turnovers and score the third-most points in a game since Pederson was hired.

In three games in Jacksonville this year, the Jaguars have been outscored 74-63, allowing 24.6 points per game and averaging 21 points scored.

In five games away from Jacksonville, the Jaguars have outscored their opponents 130-82, allowing 16.4 points per game and averaging 26 points per game.

In short, the Jaguars have played their best football in everywhere but Jacksonville this year. With three of their next four games in Jacksonville -- including a Week 11 AFC South contest vs. the Tennessee Titans and a Monday Night Football battle vs. the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 13 -- the Jaguars need to figure out their homefield problems, and quickly.

"It’s huge. Especially when we talk about the position we’re in and then how much these games are going to mean, obviously no matter where we’re at, these are going to mean a lot," Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence said on Wednesday. "Especially the last half of your season, they’re always important. No matter if you have a winning record or not going into that stretch. Just to have that homefield advantage and we’ve gone through a rough or tough stretch schedule wise of just playing on the road, playing in London, Thursday night game on the road, all of those things.

"Now, we get kind of a more friendly schedule as far as just being at home a couple of weeks in a row. A great team coming in here, we get to play at home so not having to go to the west coast, things like that. It’s definitely good for us. The fans are going to be huge and we’ve got a lot of momentum right now, they’re a huge part of that. Just bringing that, we’ve been really successful on the road this year, we need to start winning at home more. That’s a big part of with our fans as well. I know that’s what they’re looking forward to seeing. We just need all that we can get, all the home field advantage.”