After going 4-1 early in the season, it looked like the Jacksonville Jaguars were poised to make a playoff push. However, things quickly change in the NFL, and a pair of losses in back-to-back weeks makes you wonder if their strong start to the season was not a reflection of just how good this Jags team truly is.

Jacksonville was riding high after beating the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 5. However, it has suffered consecutive losses to the Seattle Seahawks and the Los Angeles Rams. All the issues that have plagued them throughout the year were magnified in those two games, and they’ll quickly need to find answers if they want to stop the bleeding. Fortunately for them, they’ll get their much-needed BYE before they face off against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 9.

The Jaguars are dealing with drops, and penalties among other issues

For the second straight week, the offensive line couldn’t protect Trevor Lawrence, giving up 24 total pressures and one sack. But protection was far from the team’s only issue. The Jags committed an alarming 13 penalties for 119 yards in the embarrassing 35-7 loss. They now have a league-worst 65 penalties for the season. However you want to look at it, that’s not ideal. But wait, there’s more.

The defense has failed to create a takeaway for the second game in a row after racking up 14 the first five games. Losing linebacker Devin Lloyd to a calf injury has certainly hurt, but the rest of the group has been unable to pick up the slack. The dearth of turnovers on defense has exposed Jacksonville’s lackluster pass rush and its underwhelming coverage in the back end.

Hey this play looks familiar pic.twitter.com/OJZvpAIyg6 https://t.co/3rCWb0pH3Q

— Dugar, Michael-Shawn (@MikeDugar) October 19, 2025

Trevor Lawrence also played a role in the loss, completing less than 50 percent of his throws. Then again, not all is on him. His receivers were credited with four drops, and it’s hard to build any kind of rhythm if you don’t get solid protection when you drop back. The throw below is on him, though.

I could do this for league minimum pic.twitter.com/aUMRzvTEYl

— Kurt Benkert (@KurtBenkert) October 19, 2025

This is a long-winded way to say that Lawrence needs to play better, but so does the rest of the team. And that’s the thing. It’s not just one thing or two, but many things are holding the Jaguars back, and simply too many to overcome.

Liam Coen is aware the Jaguars must stop the self-inflicted wounds

But as unremarkable as the Jaguars have been the past two games, the season is far from over. Moreover, they still have a winning record, going 4-3 into their BYE. Now, the team will have enough time to regroup and fix those issues that have been plaguing the team throughout the year.

“Sure did, yep, sure did. It was everything we said we didn’t want to did occur,” Liam Coen told the media after the game. “And so starts with me, got to figure it out. Got a long flight home and some days off to do that.”

Coen goes on to say that the Jags couldn’t stick to their game plan.

“Precisely when I talked about what it took to win this game and did a whole film, you know, my meeting yesterday, it was everything about staying on schedule, being able to get multiple runs off, back to back, so that we can run it, run it. Stay on schedule, stay balanced, and we didn’t do any of that again,” Coen said.

Later in the exchange, the Jaguars head coach told reporters that the buck stops with him, noting that it’s up to him to find solutions to the issues that are plaguing the team.

“Yeah, it’s, it’s definitely frustrating. But you just like everybody else in that, in there, you gotta look inward first, like, what am I doing as the head football coach? That’s not clear right now. How am I communicating these things? How am I, and how are we practicing these things? That’s what I’ve got to look at, right? I’ve got to look at the whole thing ultimately, but not going to stand up here and blame these players. It starts with me.”

Liam Coen is right not to point fingers at him. He’ll now need to find a way to steer the ship in the right direction. Working in his favor is that the Jaguars still have time to figure things out. If they make the most out of their BYE, they should be in a position to bounce back when they face off against the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 9.