Jaguars Drop Fourth Straight in 28-11 Home Loss to Buccaneers

For the Jacksonville Jaguars, a Sunday kickoff was once again a tale of two halves. Except for this time, things went a good bit better as a result of a dramatic change made during halftime.

Jacksonville lost 28-11 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at home in TIAA Bank Field, dropping their record to 4-8 and giving the Jaguars their fourth consecutive loss. But the Jaguars at least made it interesting in the second half after veteran quarterback Nick Foles was benched for rookie Gardner Minshew, a move that the fans at the stadium loudly begged for throughout the first half.

Foles was disastrous from the jump for Jacksonville. Coming off of two middling games where the offense scored 10 points combined in two first halves, Foles and the Jaguars were shutout by the Buccaneers in the first half.

This was the first time the Buccaneers kept an opponent scoreless in the first half for the first time in 42 games, the longest streak in the NFL, so Jacksonville's offensive output was especially bad when put in context.

But it wasn't just the lack of points from the Foles-led offense that was an issue. Instead, Foles single-handedly wiped out two red-zone trips and gifted Tampa Bay two touchdowns thanks to committing three turnovers on the first three possessions.

Foles' first turnover was a brutal interception thrown directly to Buccaneers linebacker Devin White after Foles failed to see White sitting in his zone, taking out a potential Jaguars field goal. Tampa Bay would then march down the field and score on a 15-yard Peyton Barber touchdown run.

On the next possession, right tackle Jawaan Taylor allowed pressure and Foles failed to see it, leading to a Shaquill Barrett strip-sack that White recovered and returned for a touchdown, putting Jacksonville in a 15-0 hole.

Finally, after leading Jacksonville to Tampa Bay's 11-yard line, Foles fumbled the ball after being sacked by Carl Nassib while extending a play, giving him three turnovers on his first three drives.

The next three drives weren't much better as the offense produced three straight three-and-outs to end the half and ultimately Foles' day. It was at halftime that Marrone would make the switch to Gardner, a switch he said after the game was done to provide a spark.

Foles finished the game with a stat line of 7-of-14 passing for 93 yards, one interception and two fumbles lost.

Jacksonville's defense was a victim to poor field position thanks to the offense's turnover in the first half, but at the very least they showed improvement against the run. After allowing over 200 yards rushing in each of the last three games, Jacksonville held Tampa Bay to 74 yards on 31 carries, a 2.5 yard per carry average.

With that said, Barber scored twice on the ground in the first half as the defense failed to hold firm following Foles turnovers.

The defense came out with noticeably more energy in the second half, as did the crowd. Once Minshew hit the field to take the first snap of the second half, the Jacksonville crowd erupted.

“Gardner gave us a spark, along with the crowd, too, cheering us on out there on the field," defensive lineman Calais Campbell said. "During halftime, [Leonard] Fournette gave us an enthusiastic speech that fired up the team before we got back out there on the field. We knew when we got back on the field, we would have to fight to keep the game up because we were losing in the first half, 25 – 0. We had to change the game plan up a little bit to get our game on and we tried our best.”

Minshew ended up giving the fans what they wanted, leading Jacksonville to two scoring drives on his first three possessions, including a four-play, 54-yard scoring drive that ended in Minshew throwing a three-yard touchdown pass to Dede Westbrook. Minshew then found Westbrook in the back of the end zone on the two-point conversion attempt, bringing the score to 25-11 after entering the game with it at 25-0.

The defense showed up in the second half as well, sacking Winston twice and forcing a turnover after undrafted rookie safety Andrew Wingard pried the ball free and D.J. Hayden recovered it.

Minshew's attempts to rally Jacksonville back from the big deficit ended up being for naught, though he did drive the Jaguars to the Buccaneers' one-yard line with about six minutes left to play and down 14 points. Unfortunately, a pass to the end zone went off of Westbrook's hands and was intercepted, giving Tampa Bay's defense four turnovers.

Minshew provided a spark to both sides of the ball though, ending his day 16-of-27 for 147 yards with a touchdown and interception apiece. He was far from perfect, but he allowed Jacksonville to at least be competitive in the second half.

“I didn’t just start preparing in that halftime, though. I’ve been preparing for it for a long time," Minshew said. "Coach Marrone came in and told me and Nick [Foles] the situation. We both talked about it and agreed [that] we’re going to do everything we can to get us back in the game.”

Only a little over a month after beating the New York Jets 29-15 in Week 8 to climb to 4-4, the Jaguars are now 4-8 after dropping four straight games, though today was the first loss that was by less than 20 points.

Next, Jacksonville plays the Los Angeles Chargers at home as they try to salvage what is left to salvage from a season that has begun to circle the drain. But at least now, it looks as if Jacksonville will have an interesting situation to watch unfold over the final four games as they try to decide on both their quarterback of the present and future.

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