Patriots 50, Jaguars 10: 5 Observations on Trent Baalke, Mac Jones, Trevor Lawrence, and More

What did we see in Sunday's blowout loss to the Patriots and what does it mean for the Jaguars moving forward?

The Jacksonville Jaguars have seen embarrassing losses before, but not many match the sheer totality of failure that we saw from Sunday's 50-10 loss to the New England Patriots.

From what the game says about embattled general manager Trent Baalke to the duel between Mac Jones and Trevor Lawrence, here is what Sunday's game meant for the Jaguars both now and moving forward.

This game was a referendum on Trent Baalke

Each day Trent Baalke is still the Jaguars' general manager is a knock against Shad Khan, and that isn't even due to Baalke's poor reputation in league circles. Baalke has simply done a bad job as general manager, piecing an already bad Jaguars roster together this offseason with overpriced deals for role players and turning below-average players into key contributors. By comparison, many of the players Baalke turned his nose up at this offseason (Hunter Henry, Jonnu Smith, Matthew Judon) made big plays for the Patriots. 

Baalke's entire resume as general manager was on display against the Patriots. Players he didn't want due to their price tags were a part of a huge victory, while players he did want (Jihad Ward, Damien Wilson, Roy Robertson-Harris, Chris Manhertz) did little to nothing as the Patriots marched up and down the field on the Jaguars. 

The players on the field on Sunday were Baalke guys. The backups were mostly players handpicked by Baalke's front office to either be on the practice squad or on the active roster. By comparison, a Patriots team that did everything the opposite of Baalke proved to be the significantly better team with a significantly better foundation. This ga

Myles Jack has had a lost season for the ages

The entire Jaguars' defense has struggled this season, with even their best players being inconsistent at best. With that said, Sunday showed another case of serious struggles from a player the Jaguars need to play better in 2022 and moving forward. 2021 has been a lost season for Myles Jack, from the green dot/no green dot debacle to his own down play, and Sunday was another example of Jack not looking like the Pro Bowl-caliber linebacker he was a year ago.

A first-half third-down conversion by the Patriots completely summed Jack's season up. The Patriots threw a quick swing pass to Rhamondre Stevenson on 3rd-and-5, but Jack flew to the boundary to fight a pick route, taking him out of the play. Jack was then late to recover, allowing the Patriots to get a first down that should have been an otherwise easy stop. 

This year has been a lost season for Jack in every way imaginable, and Sunday was another example. Perhaps it was the scheme change, but the Jaguars can't go unto the offseason confident that Jack is a dynamic playmaker the way they did last season. He has made far too few plays in 2021 to make an argument for anything else.

The Trevor Lawrence/Mac Jones debate is far from settled despite today's lopsided game

If you are just going off Sunday's game, it would be hard to say that the Trevor Lawrence/Mac Jones debate wasn't being won by Jones in a landslide. Jones made zero mistakes against the Jaguars, completing 22-of-30 passes (73.3%) for 227 yards and three touchdowns while not getting sacked once. Jones hit the easy underneath passes the Jaguars gave him, was able to work well inside the pocket, and was able to keep the Jaguars from getting close to almost any of his passes. 

Lawrence, meanwhile, completed 17-of-27 passes (63%) for 193 yards with one touchdown and three interceptions, two of which were his fault and were rookie mistakes that he simply can't let happen. The Jaguars didn't score a touchdown until the final minutes of the fourth-quarter, while Jones had three touchdown passes himself before the Patriots pulled him from the game early. Lawrence made several big throws, but he also made two critical mistakes that Jones himself didn't make, which doesn't have anything to do with the support around each quarterback.

But the debate between the two is far from over. One rookie is on a playoff team with a talented running game and several highly-paid free agents at the skill positions, while the other is on the worst team in the NFL and is playing with replacement-level players at every position on the offense. Today was a lopsided game in every facet of the word, but that doesn't mean anything for Lawrence and Jones moving forward. It does mean, however, that one team is clearly prepared to win with a young quarterback right away, while the other was a poor landing spot for a young and talented passer.

Jacksonville's lone bright spot: Walker Little

If the Jaguars had one bright spot on Sunday, it was rookie left tackle Walker Little. Little is a player the Jaguars have seen very, very little of this season due to what has been a solid year from starting left tackle Cam Robinson, but the No. 45 overall pick was forced into the starting lineup due to Robinson being on the Reserve/COVID-19 list. It was just Little's second start this season and only the third game all year he has gotten significant snaps in. 

Despite the odds being against Little to put forth a good performance, the rookie tackle did exactly that. While it is hard to say any member of the Jaguars played well in a 40-point loss, it is fair to say Little was as close as one could get. He consistently held his own against Matt Judon and was the Jaguars' best offensive lineman from the first snap to the last one, never looking out of place. For a player who needs the reps considering his lost two seasons due to injury and COVID-19, Sunday was a good step in the right direction for Little. 

The Jaguars must exorcise the demons of 2021 from TIAA Bank Field, or games like this will continue to happen 

The Jaguars should let today be a lesson moving forward. If they don't and they simply chalk it up as a COVID-19 protocol-induced Week 17 loss in an already lost season, then they will simply continue to make the same mistakes they have made over and over again during Shad Khan's tenure as owner. The Jaguars didn't look like an NFL squad against the Patriots, and the hammer must come down on more than just Urban Meyer, or games like this will pop up over and over again. 

Whether it is ridding TIAA Bank Field of Baalke and hiring a new general manager or once again hitting the reset button on the offensive staff and replacing both interim head coach Darrell Bevell and defensive coordinator Joe Cullen, the Jaguars need to rid their building of all of those responsible for the 2021 season. While it may be unfair in a select few cases, it is justified in nearly every single one overall. Baalke has done a poor job assembling a roster both on the active level and on the practice squad, while Cullen's unit continues to regress up front and Bevell has added little to the Jaguars in terms of positives during his short tenure as interim head coach.

To properly heal and ensure embarrassments like Sunday don't continue to happen, the Jaguars must cleanse their house and exorcise it of the demons that are its 2021 leaders. If they don't, they will just find themselves here again.