By Hays Carlyon
The Jaguars have consistently been the more physical team in their first five games of the season.
That ended Sunday.
Seattle showed up and whipped the Jaguars physically.
The Seahawks defensive front seven vs. the Jaguars offensive line was especially lopsided.
The Jaguars allowed the Seahawks to sack quarterback Trevor Lawrence seven times in a 20-12 defeat Sunday at EverBank Stadium. In all, the Jaguars ran 68 plays for 273 yards, a putrid 4-yard average per play.
The ground game, which entered Week 6 ranked fifth in the league, never got going. The Jaguars managed 59 rushing yards on 19 carries.
To a man, the Jaguars offensive line got consistently beaten. Left tackle Walker Little won’t have any fun watching this film. He got thrown around on way too many plays.
There were other issues as well.
Penalties remain a huge problem. Rookie receiver Travis Hunter lined up offsides on a play that negated a 54-yard touchdown pass from Lawrence to receiver Brian Thomas Jr. How does that happen at this level?
Right tackle Anton Harrison was called for illegal formation twice for lining up too far off the line.
What’s so hard about this? You guys have been playing football all your lives. You were warned that the league was going to emphasize certain things this summer.
The Jaguars had 10 penalties for 76 yards. Coach Liam Coen showed his frustration when meeting with reporters describing the situation as “an undisciplined operation at the moment” and saying it’s on him to get it fixed.
The drops are still a problem. Thomas shrunk again from contact and put one hand up on a Lawrence pass over the middle. Later in the game, he dropped an easy ball on third-and-5 in the fourth quarter with the Jaguars trailing by eight.
It’s getting harder to see superstardom in Thomas’ immediate future unless he develops more toughness.
Defensively, the Jaguars were undone by two 61-yard plays. The first was a touchdown pass from quarterback Sam Darnold to receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba that put Seattle up 10-6 in the second quarter. The final one put the game away. Tight end AJ Barner got away from safety Andrew Wingard and didn’t get tackled until he reached the Jaguars 12-yard line with 2:39 to play. The Seahawks burned the rest of the clock to seal the win.
The defense can take some solace in a fantastic effort on third down. Seattle only converted 1 of 12 opportunities.
Overall, the Jaguars (4-2) were playing with a bit of house money in this game and it showed in what was largely a lethargic effort. Whether it’s true or not, the win over Kansas City on Monday Night Football produced a team on Sunday that had little fire.
The Jaguars are still in great shape as they head to London to “host” the Los Angeles Rams (4-2) on Sunday at Wembley Stadium.
However, they need to get back to being the physically imposing team they’ve shown and cut down on the sloppy penalties.
(You can email Hays at [email protected] and follow him on X/Twitter @HaysCarlyon).
