Jaguars OC John DeFilippo on Recent Slow Starts: 'A Lot of It Is Probably the Plays I’ve Called'

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — During the Jacksonville Jaguars dissapointing 2019 season, a number of ailments have stricken the team and directly led to the 5-10 record the Jaguars currently own. One of the most serious flaws? A bad first half offense.

The offense has had its moments this season, but in the last five weeks it has been absolutely abysmal for the first 30 minutes of ballgames. For a team as flawed as Jacksonville, the margin of error is razor-thin. Starting off slow completely shatters any margin left existing, and is a big reason Jacksonville is 1-4 in that stretch.

Just how bad has the first half offense been? Jacksonville hasn't scored more than seven first half points since Week 8. The last time the Jaguars' offense scored more than three points in a first half was in Week 11 vs. the Indianapolis Colts. For five straight weeks, Jacksonville has either had 3 or 0 points entering halftime.

In the last five games alone, Jacksonville has averaged only five first downs in the first half. For context, the Atlanta Falcons had 15 at halftime in Week 16. Jacksonville has also averaged just 105.4 yards and 2.4 first half points in that five-week period.

"I think each week your style of play is different in how you’re going to attack the opponent," Jaguars offensive coordinator John DeFilippo said Thursday at TIAA Bank Field. "There are certain games where we wanted to obviously throw the football a little bit more. There are certain weeks that we knew we were going to try to slow the game down and for different reasons. We always go in, the coordinators, and know how we’re going to attack the opponent and how we’re going to try to control the tempo of the game."

So with all of the different ways Jacksonville has tried to attack defenses, why has nothing worked in the first half? DeFilippo said it ultimately falls on himself. One issue could be a lack of vertical plays, something the offense executed at a high-level in the first half of the season.

"So, I think a lot of it is probably just the way we wanted to play. A lot of it is probably the plays I’ve called, maybe haven’t attacked down the field enough, so that’s a piece of it as well," DeFilippo said. "And so we’re always looking for ways to start fast, but obviously I needed to do a better job this last month in the first half definitely, 100 percent.”