Jacksonville Jaguars 2020 Week 6 Report

By Liam Wirsansky on October 20, 2020

This past Sunday, the Jacksonville Jaguars were nothing short of a disaster as they crumbled to the hapless Detroit Lions for their fifth straight loss. Their patterns of inconsistency, error prone play, and being blown out have placed them all the way to second selection in the current draft order as thing stand. While the blame cannot necessarily be pinned on one particular aspect of the team, Jaguars QB Gardner Minshew has taken a lot of criticism with many fans questioning his potential to earn the status of a franchise quarterback, despite putting up seemingly better statistics than his previous year. At the end of the day the wins category is the statistic that matters most, and more than half of his touchdowns since Week 1 have come when the Jaguar are trailing by more than double digits, turning the ball over eight times in the process.

Against the Lions, Minshew had one of his worst outings of the season, missing point blank on several key and routine throws that fans are accustomed to seeing him make. While his stat line may not appear horrendous on the surface with 243 yards, and a rushing TD to go along with a passing one as well, Minshew had two turnovers (1 INT and 1 fumble), and struggled to generate any scoring, especially in the first half where they were only able to score 3 points. Simply put, the slow starts have plagued this offense, which continues to dig itself into massive holes that they seem less and less equip to comeback from. Since the season opening win against the Indianapolis Colts, the Jaguars have been outscored 82-40 by their opponents in the first half, this weekend of 3 points scored being the lowest first half total of the season.

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While many have lost faith in Minshew and have already set their sights for the Trevor Lawrence draft lottery sweepstakes, the second year quarterback has faced a mountain to climb with little help in succeeding. This weekend the league’s worst rushing defense allowed a measly 29 yards to the Jaguar’s rushing attack, led by undrafted rookie RB phenom James Robinson. Playing from behind and with no run game, Gardner Minshew was forced to throw for over 40 times again, which has been a proven formula to predict a loss. Jaguars’ WR Keelan Cole had a career day with 6 receptions for 143 yards, but no other receiver topped 50 yards. Pro Bowl WR DJ Chark let out his frustrations in an interview to the media after the game. “I feel like their defense came out, they played well, but I felt like, as receivers, we got open,” he said. “We have to get on the same page and we have to move the ball more efficiently so we don’t get to a point where we’re just throwing the ball and they can just sit back and not do anything.”

HC Doug Marrone, who is facing scrutiny from the fan base, has not ruled out benching Minshew moving forward if he deems it as the best move to put the team in position to win. With the little backup available having no proven experience, this team is most likely in the best hands to succeed with Minshew, no matter the growing pains.

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The defense also has major role in how poorly the Jaguars are doing as well, and although Marrone has made his stance firm of DC Todd Wash being being on the team as long as both were employed in their current positions, many do not believe either can make it the rest of the season with a job the way the defensive unit is playing. A franchise record, the team has allowed 30 or more points in five consecutive games, which is only one away from tying a league record, cementing the historically poor play the Jaguars defense has been. Giving up another 403 yards, the Todd Wash led Defense is giving up 30.2 points per game. Mistakes have been aplenty on the offense and special teams (which have had historically bad luck this year) have not helped, but it certainly is not the impetus for this level of bad play.

The impending return of K Josh Lambo and DE Josh Allen Will boost both the defense and special teams, but will hardly be a saving grace to this woeful looking season. At this point Jaguars fans are hopeful for ownership to clear house and hire the right minds to fix the locker room culture, develop their up and coming players, and use their bounty of draft capital wisely to finally build a winning environment. The Jaguars positions, if available, would be attractive jobs, and fans are just waiting and hoping to see when the current front office will be fired, rather than having to question whether or not it will actually happen. Owner, Shad Khan has given relatively Long leashes in terms of retaining his staff, and Jaguars have to be skeptical after they were not replaced last year. There have also not been any major structural changes made, despite their 1-5 record and historically poor play, as well as two other teams in the league already having been fired for less losses this season. Only time will tell, but the Jaguars, schedule only looks to be more difficult as the season progresses. For Jaguars fans, it may be time to already start getting your mock drafts ready and catching some college games on Saturdays to scout next year’s draft class.

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