JACKSONVILLE – The issue remains as familiar as it is critical.
The Jaguars are making too many mistakes too often – and if the solution isn’t necessarily easy, Jaguars Head Coach Liam Coen said the approach to finding one is clear.
“We have to simplify,” he said.
Coen, speaking early in the Jaguars Week 8 bye week, spoke extensively of the errors that helped shape a one-sided loss to the Los Angeles Rams last week – and that have remained an issue throughout their 4-3 start to the 2025 season.
“We have to play cleaner,” Coen said, with defensive end Travon Walker adding, “It’s time for us to take a step back as we go into this bye and observe the things we made those same mistakes on and just try our best not to make those same mistakes over again.”
The Jaguars have scored 19 points the last two weeks, trailing throughout the second half both games. Penalties contributed to the issues and the Jaguars faced long yardage – more than 10 – on each of their first three drives against the Rams. They failed to score on any of them and trailed 21-0 at halftime.
Sacks or penalties forced the Jaguars into long yardage on eight drives in a 20-12 Week 6 loss to the Seattle Seahawks.
“The things that show up obviously are the penalties, just those operational errors,” Jaguars center and offensive captain Robert Hainsey said. “Operation, penalties, missed assignments … those are all things that are super controllable as a group and as individuals.
“Everyone’s good and you’re competing and you’re battling, but when you add all those up it becomes way too many and the negatives just decrease your chances of continuing drives and scoring on drives by astronomical numbers every time you get one.
“Every time you have a negative play, you’re really fighting an uphill battle, even if it just is one. It’s only one play, but it almost kills that drive statistically.”
The Jaguars have committed 23 penalties for 195 yards in the last two weeks, and lead the NFL with 65 penalties for 528 yards – a yardage total that is second in the league. Three of the top six most-penalized NFL teams have first-year head coaches.
“New. New … new fundamentals, new techniques, new what you’re asking them to do, new style of play,” said Coen, in his first season as the Jaguars’ head coach. “You’re ultimately all new together and so maybe some of the fundamentals get blurred. The answer for me to fix penalties is to simplify what we’re asking them to do.
“You have to emphasize it. I don’t know how to emphasize it more. I don’t want to have these guys playing in the back of their minds, ‘If I do this, I’m going to get a penalty.’ It’s not about that. It’s about, ‘Guys, we have to play cleaner.’
“We have got to play cleaner with our hands, with our feet, with our mind. There are some controllables, some non-controllable, there’s some bad luck. Until we clean up our football, it’s going to be hard.”