Doug Pederson: 49ers’ Blowout Was ‘A Little Bit of a Wakeup Call, Quite Honestly’

The Jaguars had the worst loss of the Doug Pederson era on Sunday.

The Jacksonville Jaguars just had the worst loss of the Doug Pederson era.

Week 10's 34-3 loss to the San Francisco 49ers was, hands down, the worst game the Jaguars have played since Pederson was hired last year. There have been duds before, such as a 40-14 loss to the Detroit Lions last year and a 37-17 loss to the Houston Texans in Week 3. 

But those were the only two true blowout losses of Pederson's otherwise successful regular-season campaigns as the Jaguars' head coach. Sunday was supposed to be different, with the 6-2 Jaguars riding a five-game winning streak and leaving the bye week with a healthy defense and offensive line. 

Instead, the Jaguars saw their defense give up their most points this season and the offense score just three points, with four takeaways and five sacks setting the precedence for the worst offensive performance in Pederson's tenure. 

"I don't think they're a desperate football team, don't get me wrong, they're not. That's a good football team, so I don't think it's desperation. They know what they're doing, and they did it well today," Pederson said after the game. 

"For us, we're still trying to get there. I told the team again, we haven't done anything here. We're trying to be like that. We're trying to have that consistency and to me this will be in some ways good for our players. A little bit of a wakeup call, quite honestly, myself included, coaches, players, we all have to think about what are we willing to give up these next eight games so we don't do this again. I think our players will rebound, they always have and we look forward to next week."

The Jaguars thought they already had their wakeup call after an embarrassing home loss to the Texans in Week 3. The Jaguars lost by 20 points at home that week to a rookie quarterback, a banged-up offensive line, and a secondary full of backups. 

But this Sunday was even more alarming. The Jaguars now have the third most turnovers in the NFL thanks to four giveaways on Sunday, with three coming across the 50 and one coming at the 49ers' 10-yard line.

The blame can be spread around there, too. In Week 8, the Jaguars had three different players turn the ball over. This week, Trevor Lawrence and Christian Kirk both fumbled and Lawrence threw two interceptions, one coming off the hands of Tank Bigbsy.

"You know, yeah, it's obviously turnovers can't happen, they just flat out can't happen," Pederson said. "You just can't."

"It's a matter of whoever has the football, take care of the football. That's your job. Bring it back to the huddle, let us play another down. We continue to stress it, our players continue to stress it. Until we figure that out, it's going to be, it's long, you just can't do that. Again, if you want to be a playoff team, you got to take care of the football.