Jaguars Next Offensive Focus Will Be to Fix Red-Zone Woes

The Jacksonville Jaguars will need to be better in between the 20-yard lines moving forward if they want to make noise this season.

The Jacksonville Jaguars (3-4) left Week 7 with a much-needed 27-17 road win against the Cincinnati Bengals, but the performance did not leave the most favorable impression, specifically on the offensive side of the ball.

The Gardner Minshew-led offense racked up a ton of rushing yards (216), total yards (460), and first downs (22), but the unit struggled in the most important facet of football: scoring touchdowns.

The Jaguars had six red-zone trips against the Bengals but only walked away with one touchdown, which came via a Keelan Cole two-yard touchdown catch in the 4th quarter. Otherwise, the Jaguars came away either empty-handed or with far too little points.

Big time TD for the @kwc_football alumnus.@Air4Cole | #DUUUVAL pic.twitter.com/GrZhuTMn7I

— Jacksonville Jaguars (@Jaguars) October 20, 2019

As a whole, the Jaguars were one-for-six in converting red-zone trips into touchdowns and their first red-zone trip resulted in a turnover on downs after running back Leonard Fournette was stuffed at the one-yard line.

“I thought we did a good job moving the football early and I thought we did a terrible job scoring, you know in the red zone, and that’s obviously something we have to work on,” Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone bluntly said after the game.

Unfortunately for Jacksonville, this worrisome trend has been a problem the entire season, not just on Sunday. After Week 7, the Jaguars are last in the entire league in red-zone touchdown percentage at 33.33%. Compare that to 2017 when the Jaguars led the NFL in this stat at 69.87% despite having less talent on offense, particularly at quarterback.

As Minshew said after the win over the Bengals, the Jaguars’ inability to put the ball into the end zone despite getting close so often is the sole reason they won by only 10 points.

“If we clean some things up in the red-zone, then this isn’t a close game,” Minshew said Sunday. “There’s stuff we can work on, and stuff we’re going to work on.”

Just how are the Jaguars going to work to clean up their red-zone issues? Marrone indicated the team would look at a few options in practice this week, including getting with Minshew to see what concepts the rookie quarterback is most comfortable with when the field gets condensed.

“Situationally, I always thought that’s probably one of the tougher things for young quarterbacks coming in, especially right from college. Things happen so fast and so quickly down there,” Marrone said Monday.

“We just have to get with him, see what he likes, as far as concepts, and then once we get those concepts, we have to hit all of the different coverages and things that he can see down there.”

Marrone also noted the team would spend more time on red-zone scoring during practice moving forward. But when it comes down to it, the easiest way to fix the issue is to simply execute better when on the field, both from a play-calling and execution standpoint.

“So, I think I have to do a better job, which I will, making sure that we spend time [working on the red zone offense],” Marrone said Monday.

“Then, we have to do a good job of going down there and picking the things that, from a quarterback standpoint, he feels real comfortable with and he can make all the changes, or things like that, depending upon the coverage. And then we just have to make plays down there.”

For example, offensive coordinator John DeFilippo does the offense no favors when he calls a run up the middle on 2nd & goal from the nine-yard line like he did on Sunday. Unless the offensive line creates a massive gap, even a positive gain is essentially a wasted play.

Minshew and his receivers also need to do a better job of converting on short throws in the end zone, as a Dede Westbrook drop and a misfire by Minshew to Chris Conley both negated possible touchdowns.

The offense showed some signs of life, such as the aforementioned touchdown and an ensuing two-point conversion off of a Minshew pass to Conley. But ultimately the Jacksonville offense can not continue to rely on explosive plays. Eventually, they need to score when they are near the goal line.

“We hit a couple (Sunday), the two-point play and the touchdown, where we made plays,” Marrone said.

“I thought we had some other opportunities, but it wasn’t as smooth as you would like, it was kind of extended plays. So, we’re going to put more time in that and some more time into third down [situations].”

One solution to the Jaguars’ red-zone issues could be to put the ball in Minshew’s hands more when the team isn’t within 3-4 yards of the end zone. Rookie tight end Josh Oliver finally seeing the field could be another solution moving forward, seeing as to how he provides a big body threat for Minshew.

But no matter what they do to find answers, they need to find them. The Jaguars will not be going against many more teams as bad as the Bengals, and their red-zone woes will hurt them if it continues to flare up.