Steelers Dismantle Jaguars 27–3 As Jacksonville Loses Ninth Straight

The Jaguars were outplayed and outmatched against the undefeated Steelers on Sunday, leading to one of the team's ugliest losses of the season.

It was inevitable for the wheels to come off of the Jake Luton train eventually. But on Sunday, the wheels didn't just come off — they disintegrated before our eyes.

The sixth-round rookie predictably struggled against the undefeated Pittsburgh Steelers defense, throwing four interceptions en route to a 27-3 loss. The Jaguars (1-9) have now lost nine straight games, tying the previous single-season franchise record for consecutive losses.

The last time the Jaguars lost nine straight games in one season was in 2016, a year that saw head coach Gus Bradley get fired as the Jaguars limped to a 3-13 finish on the year. Jaguars owner Shad Khan also recorded his 100th loss as the team's owner (including playoffs) on Sunday, a milestone that shows just how much the Jaguars have struggled over the past decade.

"The record is obviously bad. I get that. I wish I could do something for them," Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone said after the game.

Jacksonville never had much of a fighting chance against the Steelers (10-), who are the league's only unbeaten team. Things got off to a fine enough start as Jacksonville drove 54 yards for a field goal on the game's first possession, but Luton struggled in the face of pressure for the rest of the game.

Making his third start for an injured Gardner Minshew II, who was inactive today with a thumb injury, Luton saw the No. 1 ranked defense in terms of sacks and takeaways devour him for four quarters.

Luton finished Sunday completing 16/37 passes (43.2%) for 151 yards (4.1 yards per attempt) and four interceptions, giving him a passer rating of 15.5. This comes one week after Luton completed just 51.4% of his passes for 4,8 yards per attempt.

One interception came on a tipped pass near Pittsburgh's 11-yard line, a result of former Jaguars first-round pick Tyson Alualu deflecting the pass at the line of scrimmage and landing in Minkah Fitzpatrick's hands. Luton's four interceptions were thrown to two players, with Fitzpatrick and Terrell Edmunds picking him off twice apiece.

"Yeah, it was a tough play. He did a good job, tipped it up," Luton said after the game. "Fitzpatrick, he is all over the field. He was in the right spot and just made a play."

With Luton's issues against pressure and with his accuracy, Jacksonville's receivers failed to make a big impact. DJ Chark led the team in receptions and yards with four catches for 41 yards, but those came on eight targets. Meanwhile, Chris Conley dropped a key third-down conversion in the first half and only Conley, Chark and Keelan Cole were even targeted among the receivers.

All in all, Jacksonville's offense has scored just 16 points over the last two games, an average of eight points a game and two points per quarter. They recorded just 206 net offensive yards on Sunday, giving them a season-low 3.7 yards per play.

Despite the 27 points on the board, there is an argument to make that Jacksonville's defense put forth a better effort than anyone could have possibly hoped for. The Jaguars started the game without their two best cornerbacks in CJ Henderson and Sidney Jones, and they then lost Chris Claybrooks and D.J. Hayden during the game.

Despite this, Ben Roethlisberger threw for just 267 yards on 46 attempts, a 5.7 yard per attempt average. He did complete two touchdowns, a 31-yard touchdown pass to Chase Claypool and a 20-yard touchdown pass to Eric Ebron, but Jacksonville's defense limited Pittsburgh to 5.1 yards per play in general and forced 10 failed third downs.

But despite the small steps toward progress on defense, the Jaguars were unable to come up big when they needed to. They lost several 50/50 balls and gave up explosive plays that could have been avoided if just one more thing went their way. They are improving on defense, but Sunday showed they aren't improving anywhere near fast enough.

"I think everybody understands ... the NFL stands for not for long. When things aren't going your way, it is a quick turnaround," linebacker Joe Schobert said after the game.

"I think the guys in the locker room understand that. This is the last couple of weeks the locker room is going to be the same."

If there was one positive for the Jaguars on Sunday, it was once again the strong play of rookie running back James Robinson. Robinson rushed 17 times for 73 yards (4.3 yards per carry) and two receptions for 21 yards. His 94 yards made up 45.6% of the team's offensive yards.

"I am going to be ready whether I get the ball or not," Robinson said after the game when asked if he feels a responsibility to carry the offense.

"I think we were just trying to stick with our running game and keep it going. I felt like at times we were able to do that, and at times we weren't."

Robinson did make some NFL history on Sunday, at least. He became the first undrafted rookie in NFL history to record 1,000-plus scrimmage yards through their first 10 career games and is firmly on track to shatter the record of scrimmage yards for an undrafted rookie.

But even with the bright side of Robinson, there were far too many negatives for the Jaguars. Unlike the last two weeks, they can't hang their hat on the merit of a "close loss". This was a beating, one from which the Jaguars are unlikely to recover soon.

"This one hurts, just like all the losses have. But like James said, we all want to win. We want to win every week and we show up every day with that mindset, and that is not going to change," Luton said.