Where the Jaguars Stand Heading Into the Bye Week

After the most recent loss to the Chiefs, the Jags get a much needed break.

With the bye week around the corner, the Jacksonville Jaguars will continue their quest to find answers to their season long struggles. Following a Week 10 27-17 to the Kansas City Chiefs, the Jaguarss currently sit at 3-7, and losers of five out of their last six games.

To say that the Jaguars need this break would be an understatement. The team clearly is lacking their early season mojo, and at times looked lost on both sides of the ball. The play of the defensive front seven, which started off the season with a bang, has lacked consistency. 

For a unit that the Jaguars poured a bevy of resources into, the results have not lived up to expectations.

On the flip side, the offense has yet to find a consistent rhythm and at times made critical mistakes that cost the team games. Simply put, the Jaguars have not been able to get out of their own way for large stretches of the 2022-2023 campaign. For head coach Doug Pederson, the message to the Jags heading into the bye week is to regroup and focus on a late season push.

“The biggest thing is how you look at it, like I am saying here,” Pederson said. “It was missed opportunities. When you play great football teams, and the Chiefs are one of those great football teams who are well coached, you have to capitalize. I know they pride themselves of taking care of the football. When you can create those opportunities as a team, we have got to take advantage of that and we did not do that as a football team today. 

"That is really the message. I will say this, it is not for the lack of effort or anything like that at all. We have played ten straight weeks now. The team needs a break at this time. It is a good time for it to kind of step away. I told them to kind of regroup and really think about the first ten, but more importantly, I want them to think of the next third of this season and really focus on that. I believe that our goals are still in front of us. We made it a little bit harder today, but I think if we continue to improve, anything is possible moving forward.”

Trevor Lawrence, who’s inconsistent play has been the subject of intense criticism all season long, managed to put a second straight strong effort together against the Chiefs, completing 29-40 passes for 259 yards and 2 touchdowns with zero turnovers. For Lawrence, there is acknowledgement that improvement is necessary, but these performances are certainly a step in the right direction.

“I feel really good with where we’re at as far as just being on the same page, especially myself and the receivers,” Lawrence said. 

“I feel like we’ve taken some big steps the last couple of weeks. Our group up front has done a great job all year. There’s a lot of stuff to learn. There are still too many missed opportunities in the passing game and run game, all over the place with plays that we can make. We’re going to look at those. I know we’re headed in the right direction, I’m confident in that. If you want to win these games, you can’t miss too many opportunities and we did that today.”

Missed opportunities and a tough learning curve in the first year of the Doug Pederson era has been the story of the season thus far. For the Jaguars, maintaining composure and incremental strides will be the key to finishing the season strong and setting themselves up for the future.