With Urban Meyer's Back Against the Wall in Nashville, the Jaguars Only Got Worse

With a swirl of rumors coming from both inside and outside the building — a wave of noise that has only built more and more with each loss and each long week — the Jacksonville Jaguars had a chance to quiet down the world around them on Sunday.

A chance to find a win, snap a losing streak, and for one week put a rest to the leaks and rumors of discontent that have flooded outside of TIAA Bank Field. That is the opportunity Sunday presented to the Jaguars.

Instead, the Jaguars turned in their most embarrassing offensive effort in over a decade, being shut out for the first time since October 2009. Instead, the rumors of turmoil and dysfunction seemingly bled onto the field as the Jaguars sleepwalked through a 20-0 loss to the Tennessee Titans, the Jaguars' fifth loss in a row and one that dropped them to 2-11.

No closing the ranks. No forcing a close game to offer some encouragement about the direction of the team. Instead it was four quarters without a touchdown, nearly 100 yards in penalties and four interceptions from Trevor Lawrence to continue a wasted rookie year.

"You watched out there today, Myles Jack and that defense and some of those kids, Roy (Robertson-Harris), (Dawuane) Smoot, those guys are playing their tails off. You get a couple scores on offense, you're right there, and we didn't do it. So what's the answer? Start leaking information or some nonsense? No," Meyer said after the loss.

"No, that's nonsense. That's garbage. That's once again -- I've been very blessed. I've not really dealt with that. I've not dealt with, ‘Well, did you hear what he said?’ What? No. Let's improve on offense and get our quarterback in a position to be successful. That's our focus. What someone's brother said, or someone said someone said, that will occupy very little of my time. And if there is a source, that source is unemployed. I mean, within seconds, if there's some source that's doing that."

Meyer himself addressed certain aspects of the week's past reports, but Sunday was the seventh day in a row in which the first-year head coach has come under fire. Dating back to last week's embarrassing road loss vs. the Rams in which James Robinson was clumsily benched, the Jaguars and Meyer have been square in the sights for detractors.

And that didn't change Sunday. Instead of the Jaguars rallying around the rumors like we have seen past Jaguars teams do, this year's Jaguars team simply isn't good enough to overcome both their on-field and off-field shortcomings.

A win -- or at the very least a close game -- against the Titans on Sunday would have done wonders for the perception inside and outside of Jacksonville that Meyer is out of his depth in the NFL.

Instead what the Jaguars got was a hapless performance on both sides of the ball. Were it not for a missed field goal, the Jaguars would have been down at halftime 13-0 with just 33 yards from scrimmage before a gimmie play at the end of the half. The Jaguars turned the ball over four times, throwing interceptions on four of their final seven drives. The other three drives consisteted of two punts and a turnover on downs.

Couple this with the Jaguars' defense allowing Ryan Tannehill and the Titans' rushing attack to make easy work of them on long drives throughout the first half, and there was little in terms of positives. For the Jaguars to put forth that performance, and against that depleted Titans team, speaks volumes about how far the Jaguars have fallen and how much worse it can get.

"It hasn't exactly materialized the way I expected it to have, the experience of winning games. I knew that this was somewhat of a build. I also really believe that we have plenty of good enough players to go win games," Meyer said on Sunday. "I still believe that. That's why I get so disappointed sometimes with our coaching staff or myself, because I think we can do better than we're doing. Really disappointed."

With Meyer's back against the wall in Nashville, he and the Jaguars had a chance to make their own statement. To refute reports of turmoil by playing together and by finally putting together a complete game.

Instead, the Jaguars' on-field product only got worse. As the fires rage off the field, what transpired on the field only encouraged the flames to rise higher and higher.

The Jaguars had a chance to make some noise on Sunday. Instead, they only helped the nois

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