By Jeff Moeller, Florida Sports Wire
NASHVILLE – Everbank Stadium will be a quiet scene this Saturday afternoon. Jacksonville was primed for an NFL playoff game with a 4:30 p.m. Kickoff.
It wasn’t supposed to be a raucous, rollicking palace with a Jaguars playoff game against the Cleveland Browns as its centerpiece. There were few doubts that it wouldn’t happen. It was just a matter of making your plans for the weekend or Monday night.
The Jaguars going to Tennessee and beating struggling quarterback Ryan Tannehill and aging running back Derrick Henry was a foregone conclusion and a safe bet. Head coach Mike Vrabel, believed to be on the hot seat, was eventually fired Tuesday.
They would keep it going after they dismantled an inept Carolina team last week. Tennessee had just five wins, and the rebuilding program would quickly fold.
Unfortunately for the Jaguars, they looked more like the struggling team, and the Titans looked like the surging one in a 28-20 loss.
This one will sting for a while. It won’t go down as one of their worst losses, but it certainly will be the final piece of their most colossal collapse in team history.
Yet, the Jags didn’t show up. At least their defense didn’t. Tannehill and Henry looked like torments of seasons past, making their final curtain call a memorable one for the Tennessee faithful. Henry’s 153-yard rushing total was his third highest over the past eight years. Former Jags’ linebacker Arden Key, who had six sacks this season, also was part of the Titan’s celebration.
It’s hard to believe the Jags are done, but they are.
Just five or six weeks ago, there was plenty of buzz about buying playoff tickets. Oddsmakers had the Jags as high as 99 percent to make the players with their once 8-3 record in a division where a challenger easily seemed a year away.
I have reiterated the facts a few times about their 8-3 record, but they were in the same discussion with the 8-3 Ravens and Chiefs as well as the 8-3 Cowboys and 49ers. The Eagles were the talk of the league with their 10-1 record, but they have severely freefalled since then.
All of those aforementioned teams – except the Eagles – surged ahead from their 8-3 stance. You can also throw in the then 7-4 Steelers and Browns.
The Jags didn’t.
Trevor Lawrence made his share of mistakes, but he obviously wasn’t 100 percent from his series of ankle, knee, and shoulder injuries as well as his concussion.
As I mentioned, this is on the defense that was once fourth against the run (92 yards allowed per game) and among the bottom half against the pass.
They finished 22nd in total defense, slipping to ninth against the run and sagging to 26th against the pass. Over their final six games, the Jags’ unit allowed 24 points in their final six games, the lone shining star as 26-0 shutout over Carolina. The defense allowed 30 or more points four times in the second half of the season.
A housecleaning was in order, and the Jags began it with the firing of defensive coordinator Mike Caldwell and most of the defensive staff along with running backs coach Bernie Parmalee and assistant offensive line coach Todd Washington.
Head coach Doug Pederson stated that “you gotta put it on somebody” and he did. Offensive coordinator Press Taylor currently appears to be safe.
The state of the secondary will be under the microscope, and signing defensive leader Josh Allen will be a top priority.
Defensive linemen Duwane Smoot and Jeremiah Ledbetter along with linebacker K’Lavon Chaisson are among other key free agents.
There will be plenty of soul-searching ahead, but this should be a tune-up instead of a retool.
Pederson isn’t overly concerned.
“I feel fine moving forward, he offered. “I just think how we finished the last six games of the year, how we did it, we had opportunities to win these games. It wasn’t like we were out of a lot of games down the stretch here.”
The problem is that they’re out of the NFL playoffs.
Think about how it could have been at Everbank Stadium late Saturday afternoon.
