HAYS BLOG: Jaguars offense should be bad — but not this bad

By Hays Carlyon

The Jaguars didn’t have much offensive talent heading into training camp around rookie quarterback Trevor Lawrence.

Then, rookie first-round running back Travis Etienne suffered a foot injury in the preseason and was finished for the season.

The team’s best receiver, DJ Chark, was then lost in the opening drive of the fourth game for the season with a broken ankle. He caught seven passes prior to the injury.

If we knew that Etienne and Chark would combine to have seven touches this season whatever optimism we had in early August would’ve been significantly extinguished.

However, first-year Jaguars coach Urban Meyer shouldn’t be given a pass on how poorly this offense has performed through 11 games. The misery continued Sunday in a 21-14 home loss to Atlanta, dropping the Jaguars to 2-9.

The general feeling was the Jaguars offense played pretty well against the Falcons, which is sad and concerning. They scored 14 points against a bad defense.

The Jaguars have yet to score 24 points in a game this season. They are the only team that has that dubious distinction. Yes, even Houston and Detroit have done it once.

Twenty-four points is not exactly a tremendous accomplishment in this age of offense.

There are 15 teams that average at least 24 points a game. So, an above average offense consistently hits that mark.

I often feel that the Jaguars don’t seem like they play in the same league with the top teams in the NFL. Then, I unearthed this stat and my feeling was confirmed.

This is how many times, as of 5 p.m. Sunday, that teams had scored at least 24 points this season.

Nine times: Indianapolis, New England and Tampa Bay.

Eight times: Buffalo, Cincinnati, Green Bay and Tennessee.

Seven times: Arizona, Dallas, the Los Angeles Rams and Minnesota.

Six times: Kansas City, the Los Angeles Chargers, Las Vegas, New Orleans and Philadelphia.

Five times: Atlanta, Baltimore, Carolina, Cleveland and San Francisco.

So, 21 teams have scored at least 24 points in a minimum of five games this season.

Let’s continue.

Four times: Denver, Miami, Seattle and Washington.

Three times: New York Giants, New York Jets and Pittsburgh.

Two times: Chicago.

Once: Houston and Detroit.

The Jaguars don’t have a lot of talent without Etienne and Chark.

However, Meyer, general manager Trent Baalke and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell have done a collective miserable job surrounding Lawrence with talent, an offensive identity and a schematic edge over the opponent.

The Jaguars offense should be bad. This was a 1-15 team last season bringing a new coach and rookie quarterback.

However, it shouldn’t be this dreadful.

Certainly, it shouldn’t be worse. Last year’s team averaged 19.1 points a game. This year’s team averages 15.9 points per game.

Stop laughing, Doug Marrone.

There are still six games left. Some level of consistent progress must be achieved.

Scoring 24 points in a game, any game, in this day and age should not be this difficult.

(You can email Hays at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @HaysCarlyon).