Inside Slant

The Sports Xchange

September 29, 2018 at 9:44 am.

Jaguars look to avoid back-to-back defeats

If a team can avoid losing back-to-back games during the regular season, it will be assured of at least a .500 record, possibly higher if it can put a winning streak together. But lose two or more games in a row and it can doom a season quickly.

The Jacksonville Jaguars have been able to do that for the most part during head coach Doug Marrone’s 21-game career. The Jaguars have lost consecutive games just once during that time, the two losses coming in the final two weeks of the 2017 season. But by then, the Jaguars were 10-4 and in control of the AFC South which they eventually won with a 10-6 mark. Entering Sunday’s game against the New York Jets, the Marrone-coached Jaguars are 7-1 in games following a loss. The Jaguars coach said there’s an explanation to that success and he’s hoping it carries through another week following Jacksonville’s 9-6 loss to Tennessee last week.

“The key to doing it is we had a productive Monday,” Marrone said. “You can never say good day after a loss. We had a productive Monday where we looked at things and were able to address some of the things we need to get done, execution-wise, the football, the penalties, all the things that contributed to us not performing as well as we should. Coming in with a mindset of really being focused, really putting in the work and preparation. I have always said this and I truly believe it: ‘You have to put in the work and you have to put in the preparation, but you can’t make the mistake of not understanding that it is a performance-based business and you have to do it on Sunday.’

“Even if you go during the week and you are doing a great job, but when that Sunday comes, you have to be able to put that on the field and be able to perform. That is how you get labeled — by your performance. Not by how you practice or how you work. All that is doing is giving you confidence and preparation knowing that you can go into the game and that you can play at the top level.”

Even if the Jaguars are able to continue their winning ways following a defeat and beat the Jets on Sunday, the loss to Tennessee last week will linger with the Jaguars, probably until they get a rematch with the Titans the first week in December when the two teams hook up for a Thursday night contest on Fox and the NFL Network. That will be the first game of the last quarter of the schedule and will probably be the second most difficult of the four quarters that the Jaguars have broken their schedule into. A win this Sunday over the Jets (Jaguars are favored by 8) would give them a 3-1, first-quarter record. They’ll need a cushion as the most difficult of the quartet of quarters comes next. It’s a four-game slate with games at Kansas City and Dallas, a home contest against division rival Houston and an encounter with defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia in London.

That may be the reason that Marrone holds out running back Leonard Fournette one more week. If Fournette’s backup, T.J. Yeldon is recovered from his ankle injury, Fournette and his tender hamstring may be relegated to the sidelines a third consecutive week. Marrone offered the following thoughts on how he views a player with a hamstring injury, specifically a running back with such an injury compared to another position player.

“I think that a lot of it depends on the injury for the position and what you can sustain,” Marrone said. “Obviously, it’s hard to feel someone else’s injury. I think in each position it is a little bit different. I am only going to relate it to myself, not the guys on the team, but if I’m an offensive lineman and my toe is sprained, I can probably play with that to a certain extent. If I have my fingers or my elbows or shoulders (injured), it is different things. I can limit my movement and still be productive in what I can do. I think when it comes down to injuries, a lot of it is position specific. If a quarterback hurts his non-throwing hand, yes, you have to worry about the snap, but that shouldn’t hinder him too much. I think that a lot of that does go into it of what you are expecting or how that player is going to be able to come back.”

Another area that Marrone has concern with the Jaguars is the team’s assessed penalties. They have accumulated 265 yards in penalties after just three games, the third highest total in the NFL. The Jaguars have had at least twice as many penalties as their opponent in two of the three games and narrowly missed in the third (11 to 6). On the season, the Jaguars have 26 total penalties while opponents have just 12 and Jacksonville has almost three times as many penalty yards (268 to 98).

“I think it is hurting us. Obviously, it is hurting our football team,” Marrone said about the penalties. “We are not a team that is built to overcome long situations. We keep talking about it. We keep stressing it. I have always said it before. There is no excuse for pre-snap penalties, but obviously some of the plays that happen; there is no excuse to drag someone down or hold somebody. You are better off letting someone go and making the tackle and being in second and 10 rather than first and 20. We just keep trying to coach the technique, coach it off the tape, coach it off of practice, we talk about it in meetings and we have to go out and perform that way.”

SERIES HISTORY: 13th regular-season meeting. Series tied, 6-6. Jaguars won three games in a row between 2005 and 2009 to take a 6-2 lead in the series, but the Jets have since won the last four meetings to tie it at 6-games apiece. Jets won last year’s encounter on their home field, using running plays of 69 and 75 yards to score two of their touchdowns in a 23-20 overtime win. Jets rushed for 256 yards in that game. Jaguars had the ball inside the 5-yard line late in the game but had to settle for a field goal to force OT. Jaguars biggest win in the series was 41-0 in 2006, one of six shutouts in franchise history while the 41-point differential is the second largest point difference in a victory in team history (48 vs. Cleveland). Jacksonville has won three of the four games between the two teams on its home field, the loss (17-10) coming in 2012. That’s the only home contest for the Jaguars in their last five meetings with the Jets.