Jags fans may have hurt the team more than they helped against Bengals
Monday night was supposed to be a big night for the Jacksonville Jaguars. It was the franchise's first Monday Night Football game at home in 12 years. At 8-3, Jacksonville not only had a chance to strengthen its AFC South lead over the Houston Texans, but they would've earned the AFC's No. 1 seed with a […]
Monday night was supposed to be a big night for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
It was the franchise's first Monday Night Football game at home in 12 years. At 8-3, Jacksonville not only had a chance to strengthen its AFC South lead over the Houston Texans, but they would've earned the AFC's No. 1 seed with a win.
Against the Jake Browning-led Cincinnati Bengals, who were double-digit underdogs coming into the game, the stars were aligned for the Jags to put themselves in a premier spot heading into December.
But, obviously, that didn't happen. A slew of key injuries -including a game-ending injury to star quarterback Trevor Lawrence- and a poor defensive performance led to a devastating loss that has the month of December off to a bad start in Duval.
Injuries are part of the game. They can strike at any moment and they can happen in bunches. There's nothing teams can really do when they're hit like the Jags were against the Bengals. They can only hope to survive the moment and get out with a win.
But, as for the defense – that's a completely different story. Mike Caldwell's proud unit was absolutely ripped to shreds by Jake Browning and co. for a total of 491 yards and 34 points. It didn't stop there, either. The Bengals also averaged 6.8 yards per play, converted 57.1% of their third downs, turned all three of their red zone trips into touchdowns, and punted just once all night long.
That's an abysmal performance, plain and simple. And the main catalyst behind the ineptitude was a basic one, but one that can certainly sink a defense if things go bad enough: miscommunication.
Jags head coach Doug Pederson points out crowd noise as a factor
The foundation of the poor communication wasn't all on the players, however. Apparently, the crowd noise played a big role in the debacle. The riled-up fanbase not only tried to make life tough for the Bengals, it inadvertently made things tough for the Jags defense, too.
"If you're on the field and the crowd, as loud as they are, when we're on defense, we have to reiterate communication," Pederson told reporters after the game. "That's all it is. It's just double-checking with everybody. It's not communication issues, it's just being able to communicate the calls effectively. There's a lot of talk that has to go back and forth because of the way the crowd was. The crowd was great today. That's what you want. It does kind of put your defense in a little bit of a bind because of that, right? No different than the offense going into an environment that's very loud. I wouldn't say they're issues. You’ve just got to over-communicate."
There's logic in Pederson's statement, but it's still an odd situation to describe and ultimately hard to buy into. What makes it even stranger is the Jags defense never could overcome the crowd noise/miscommunication.
"You just got to talk," said Pederson. "They got to make verbal communication, eye contact. You got to get closer. It's just part of a loud environment. It's repeating yourself as much as you can out on the field. It's (talking) to the front, to the secondary, secondary out to the corners and all that. Everybody has to be on the same page."
It's a poor excuse for the Jags defense
At some point, these guys should've been able to figure out how to circumvent and adapt. The majority of the defense has been in Caldwell's system for almost two seasons, now, so it's not like a bunch of newbies playing together in the first year. The Jags defensive coordinator should've also been able to figure out some kind of counter, as well.
I guess the good news is three of the Jags' final five games are on the road? They no longer have to worry about their boisterous fans preventing them from keeping touchdowns off the board?
Ultimately, it was a total let down on the defensive side of the ball. And if the Jags are to be without Lawrence, regardless of the amount of time, they're going to need the defense to step up and help carry the team.
Because if they turn in more performances like they did on Monday night, then the Jags' season will be nothing short of a rollercoaster ride over these last five games.
