JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -A few weeks ago, the Jacksonville Jaguars appeared poised to make the playoffs.
They were 7-5 after a 23-18 home win over the Houston Texans on Dec. 6.
Now after Sunday’s 35-7 loss to New England, the Jaguars (7-8) need to win and get a lot of help from the other teams in the playoff race. Jacksonville finishes the regular season in Cleveland on Sunday. And the Browns have won three in a row.
Coach Jack Del Rio says talk of making the playoffs is “far-fetched.”
And after losing three straight and four of five, the Jaguars are tied with Tennessee in trying to avoid finishing in last in the AFC South for the second consecutive year.
Expectations were high earlier in the month as the Jaguars controlled their playoff destiny and had another pair of home games against Miami and Indianapolis.
The December slide started with a 14-10 loss to the Miami Dolphins on Dec. 13.
A week later, the Jaguars lost to the Colts 35-31 and entered Sunday’s game at New England with a chance to get above .500.
New England) or even stay in that game,” Del Rio said Monday. “They totally outplayed us from start to finish.”
Del Rio couldn’t explain why the team failed down the stretch after talk about the need to win in December.
“We lost two close ones (Miami and Indianapolis) and (Sunday) wasn’t close,” Del Rio said. “When we put everything together, we’ve been able to keep them close.”
He could look at quarterback David Garrard, who has been inconsistent in the critical games. He ended Sunday’s loss with a 62.9 QB rating after completing 19 of 25 passes for 185 yards. He had two interceptions and scored the team’s only touchdown on a 2-yard run.
The running game, which began the season among the best in the league, has been struggling recently and the pass defense and tackling have caused problems for the Jaguars.
The 16 rookies on the roster, with many in key roles, also made mistakes at critical times.
Running back Maurice Jones-Drew, who had 63 yards rushing against the Patriots, had no problem in describing what has happened in the past few weeks.
“Blew it,” he said. “That’s pretty much what it came down to. We didn’t do what we needed to do to win games. It wasn’t really what other teams did to us, we just beat ourselves.”
istic.
“For all that to happen it would be crazy,” he said. “That’s not our focus. Our focus is on getting a win at Cleveland. The opportunities were there. Three straight home games and we just let it slip away.”
Jones-Drew said the Jaguars will use the collapse to their advantage.
“This is going to be a stepping stone because this isn’t going to happen again,” he said. “We had an opportunity and we let it down and this can’t happen again, no ifs, ands or buts about it. It won’t. As long as I’m here that’s going to be my stand on it. I don’t care if we have a hundred rookies playing, it won’t happen.”
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