The Jaguars suffered a mind-boggling letdown Sunday in a 9-6 loss to the divisional-rival Titans at TIAA Bank Stadium. They have now dropped three straight games to Tennessee dating back to last season. It was a truly unexpected performance, just seven days removed from what many in the locker room called a statement win over the visiting Patriots.
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The Jaguars are 2-1. They sit in second place in the AFC South.
Here are five day-after thoughts from the defeat.
1. Bad Bortles
OK, let’s get this out of the way first.
Blake Bortles outplayed Tom Brady in Week 2, picking apart the Patriots secondary with an uncharacteristic but lethal vertical attack. In that game, New England showed the Jags offense a heavy dose of press man coverage. Bortles — through the play-calling of Nathaniel Hackett — responded by taking shots downfield and giving his receivers a chance to make plays on 50-50 balls (see: Keelan Cole).
The Titans had a different game plan Sunday. They played almost exclusively off coverage and dared Bortles to take what was given — underneath throws and shorter routes. This, of course, requires accuracy to defeat. You have to hit the open men play after play and force the defense to change their coverage, thereby opening up deeper routes.
Bortles was simply not accurate enough Sunday afternoon. Not even close. He missed a slew of open receivers, sometimes inexplicably without any pressure bearing down on him.
This was probably the worst miss of the day: Bortles had Cole WIDE OPEN on a third and 3 in the first quarter. He has a clean pocket. But the ball sails off target.
Bortles couldn’t connect with Cole again late in the first half on second and 10.
Cole runs a good route and is open. You expect this throw to be on the numbers.
Cole was open for a third time on a crucial third and 4 midway through the third quarter, with the Jaguars trailing 6-3 and sitting near midfield. Cole gets significant separation from two defenders, but Bortles’ pass is deflected. It was his third batted pass in six plays.
If Bortles delivers this accurately, it’s at least a 15-yard gain for Cole — probably more. Instead, the Jaguars punted.
There also were times when Bortles showed a concerning lack of awareness. The primary example was the delay of game penalty on the opening drive where he seemed to just forget about the play clock. Bortles also failed to identify open receivers on a couple plays later in the game.
On second and 8 early in the second quarter, T.J. Yeldon leaked out into the flat and was wide open. But Bortles doesn’t see him until very late, and by the time he gets the ball there, Yeldon runs out of room and has no choice but to step out of bounds.
This is a much bigger play if Bortles makes the decision earlier and throws more accurately.
Then there was this first-and-10 play late in the first half. Bortles moves to his right on a designed rollout, and Austin Seferian-Jenkins found a sizable gap in the Titans’ coverage. Bortles, though, never sees him.
To Bortles’ credit, he was the first to admit he didn’t play up to par. And the Jaguars receivers gave him very little help by dropping at least three balls, including this second-and-20 attempt to Cole near the right sideline in the second quarter. Bortles said Monday this throw did not get deflected.
Drops aside, though, it’s still hard to reconcile these two versions of Bortles: the All-Pro-level gunslinger who dominated the Patriots and the underwhelming, out-of-sync quarterback who took the field Sunday.
One thing is for sure: The Jags need more consistent play from Bortles if they’re going to win a Super Bowl.
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2. Game-changing call
I’ve watched the replay of Malik Jackson’s personal foul at least a dozen times, and I can’t figure out how he’s supposed to avoid helmet-to-helmet contact in a situation like this.
He’s coming full speed up the middle. Blaine Gabbert turns at the last minute to avoid Calais Campbell, who is charging from the other side. All this is happening at warp speed, and yet the league is expecting Jackson, a 290-pound man, to somehow remove his head from the collision while leading with his shoulder.
“I’m not a Japanese ninja,” Jackson said Monday.
I tend to agree with him. This was a huge turning point in the game. Jackson’s hit forced a fumble that Dante Fowler recovered. The Jags would have taken over in plus-territory with the game still tied at 0. Instead, the Titans, with Marcus Mariota taking over under center, drove down and took the lead with a field goal.
Here’s the reality: The NFL has instituted a bad rule — a few of them, actually. But we’ll focus on the one that hurt Jackson on this play: Article 8, which discusses use of the helmet.
“It is a foul if a player lowers his head to initiate and make contact with his helmet against an opponent,” the rulebook reads.
When you look at the replay, Jackson makes initial contact with his helmet. But to me, it seems like just byproduct of the collision. I wrote about this in last week’s Rewind. When large men are running into each other, helmet-to-helmet contact is unavoidable. The bulk of Jackson’s blow to Gabbert is through his shoulder and arms. But the helmet contacted first, and therefore it is a penalty.
It’s a bad rule that was called correctly.
3. Offensive line inconsistency
When you only put up six points, the blame doesn’t fall squarely on one individual’s shoulders. And so we must mention some suspect play from a Jaguars offensive line that was missing two starters — left tackle Cam Robinson, who is out of the season with a torn ACL, and right guard A.J. Cann, who couldn’t overcome a triceps injury that limited him in practice all week.
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Josh Wells started for Robinson and played well, holding his own in pass protection. Chris Reed, meanwhile, started for Cann and struggled, both in the run and pass blocking.
The right side of the offensive line was the real issue in this game. Right tackle Jermey Parnell also had a rough outing.
But let’s start with Reed.
On this third and 4 early in the first quarter, Reed stops linebacker Derrick Morgan’s initial rush. But when Morgan charges again, Reed gets beat, and Bortles takes a huge shot to the midsection as he’s trying to throw.
Dede Westbrook was open on a crossing route, but the throw is off target as a result of the hit.
Later, on a first and 10 early in the fourth quarter from just outside the red zone, the Jags ran a stretch run for Corey Grant to the right side. Reed was beat by defensive lineman Bennie Logan and committed a holding penalty to prevent a big loss.
It didn’t really do much because Logan still got to Grant and forced a TFL. But the Jags were backed up 10 yards because of the hold, and they had to settle for a tying field goal.
The pass protection on the right side of the line then completely unraveled on the Jaguars’ second-to-last possession, when they were trailing by three and needed a clutch drive from Bortles. On second and 2, Bortles was dropped for a sack fumble by defensive tackle Jurrell Casey.
As you can see below, Bortles was forced to step up in the pocket after both Parnell and Wells were beat to the outside. But the real issue came in picking up Casey’s stunt.
Casey lines up in front of left guard Andrew Norwell. At the snap, he takes two steps forward, before peeling back around to his left, where he he finds a gap.
Both Reed and running back T.J. Yeldon block the same defender — No. 53 Daren Bates. That creates the space for Casey to come unblocked through the right side. Center Brandon Linder was initially engaged with defensive lineman Daquan Jones, and at the last minute, when he sees Casey sprinting free, tries to pass Jones off to left guard Andrew Norwell. But it was too late.
On the very next play, Parnell got beat badly off the edge by rookie linebacker Harold Landry, forcing Bortles to scramble.
The Jaguars punted, and that was the last time the offense saw the ball with any reasonable chance to score.
4. Bouye’s miscues
A.J. Bouye is an All-Pro cornerback and probably deserves much more recognition around the league than he receives.
But he didn’t have his best game Sunday.
Bouye was beat on a key play in each of the Titans’ three scoring drives. In the first quarter, the Jags were in off coverage on third and 6, and Gabbert connected with Taywan Taylor on first-down completion in front of Bouye.
On the first play of the second half, Corey Davis beat Bouye on a double move, and Bouye had no choice but to take a 17-yard pass interference penalty.
Three snaps later, with the Titans facing a first and 20 after a Taylor Lewan holding penalty, both Bouye and linebacker Telvin Smith missed tackles on Davis, who broke free for a 22-yard gain.
Then on the Titans’ third and final scoring drive in the fourth quarter, Davis beat Bouye inside on a third-and-5 play.
Tennessee ended up kicking the winning field goal on this possession.
5. Yeldon gimpy
Yeldon was battling an ankle injury all week. And after Sunday’s loss, Doug Marrone indicated that Yeldon was dealing with a good amount of pain during the game. The ankle injury actually worsened after a low hit along the sideline — possibly a late one — early in the second quarter.
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He was still able to play 38 offensive snaps (67 percent of the total) and finished with 90 total yards. But he only carried the ball seven times, and you wonder if that number would have been larger if Yeldon was closer to 100 percent.
This is all to rehash a glaring point: The Jaguars need Leonard Fournette back. Badly.
(Top photo by Reinhold Matay / USA TODAY Sports)