WATFORD, UK – Let's get to it …
Jeff from Orange, CA
You have referenced the Jaguars not having great players as a key reason for the results to date. Would you say the team had great players the last couple years when the team was much more competitive? It seems the roster is largely the same (and was supposed to be improved even), yet the results are so different. Or is it that players that were great and capable of making key plays are no longer such players?
I would say the difference between winning and losing in the NFL is very, very close – and that by extension, the difference between the 2022/2023 Jaguars seasons and the 2024 season also is relatively close. Consider: The Jaguars – who play the New England Patriots at Wembley Stadium in London on Sunday – are a play or two away or three from being 2-4, 3-3 or 4-2 this season. When they were 8-3 in 2023, they were a play or two or three from being under .500. When they won their last five games of the regular season to win the AFC South in 2022, they were a play or two – or three – from losing two or three of those games and having a less-memorable season. A few players, and a few positions, here or there makes the difference. The Jaguars made plays in big situations for a while in 2022/2023 and now they're not. Is it a collective lack of belief? A collective slump? A collective of just not quite being good enough? Most likely, it's a collective combination. I wish I had a better answer about why.
Brian from ROUND ROCK, TX
We all get that the players are not making enough winning plays. The question is why. Why are they mentally fragile? Why are they mistake-prone? Why do they not have confidence and competitiveness? Why did they have these traits and then lose them?
Your question is understandable considering many of these traits are contributing significantly to the Jaguars' 1-5 record through six games of the 2024 regular season. The problem is it's a question about a collective rather than a specific. Not all Jaguars players are mentally fragile, or mistake-prone, and they're certainly not all unconfident or uncompetitive. But as a group, in an ultracompetitive league in which games are decided in moments and situations, they just haven't been good enough overall in these situations so far this season. And they weren't good enough in these situations at the end of last season. It's frustrating. No doubt.
Crash from Glen Saint Mary, FL
OZ! They don't hate to lose.
It's very, very difficult to define this trait. But when football teams don't close games, it leads to this sort of analysis.
Drew from Buford, GA
I don't want to be a downer, but how much are we really going to learn if the Jags win this game? We learn more than we want to if they lose, but a win over a team that by every metric we should beat –unless we absolutely crush them. Even the win over the Indianapolis Colts was eh. They were missing a lot of starters including their quarterback, running back and two offensive linemen. And they scored 34 points. I'm hopeful for a win this week, but until we beat a mediocre team, it really doesn't mean much.
You play who your schedule says you play – and in the NFL, any team can win in any week. What would a victory Sunday mean? What would we learn? As you say, likely not a lot on either front in terms of changing the perception of the team. But it would mean they won and didn't lose – and this team needs that very much.
Allen from St Clairsville, OH
Though Ventrell Miller is playing well, do you think the defense is missing Foye Oluokon's leadership? And will he return this season?
Jaguars middle linebacker Foye Oluokun – currently on injured reserve – is a team captain and leader, so it would be weird if the team didn't miss his leadership. Yes, he is expected to return from his foot injury this season.
Bradford from Orange Park, FL
Good for (or on) you and Bucky Brooks calling it down the stripe.
One of us is the king of all funk.
Anita from Springfield
It's always seemed like Trevor puts a lot of zip on his balls, even compared to other quarterbacks. Does he throw a less catchable ball than other quarterbacks? Why do we have such a drop problem?
Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence's passes for the most part are perfectly catchable. I honestly never have been able to explain a team's "drop problems." I do know there are some franchises that simply believe the No. 1 trait of a wide receiver must be good hands and those franchises typically don't sign or draft players who have a history of dropped passes.
Don from Marshall, NC
If this team wanted to save the coaches and the general manager from getting fired, then they need to go out and show that they are not of bunch of pansies. Throttle New England and maybe your kids will at least talk to you when you get back. I will just keep wearing my Jaguars bucket hat to the grocery store even though I hear the laughs in the background. Hope is a good thing! Go Jaguars!
When it comes to bucket hats despite all else, Don remains "all in."
John from Jacksonville
Jaguars running back Travis Etienne Jr. has a hamstring injury. On the Doug Pederson Radio show, the coach said they may have to elevate a running back from the practice squad if Etienne can't play. Do the practice squad players travel with the team to the United Kingdom?
Yes.
Larry from Wattsburg(h), PA
Was the original idea of the streak to write daily until a Super Bowl victory by this team? It has been going for so long I forget the end game. Still an impressive amount of vitriol that you must sift, collate, then disregard. Let's all hope the young guys coming up seize this team and create a hard-hitting team of the future!
If memory serves – as it sometimes does – the O-Zone streak began with discussion about blackouts and me saying I would write an O-Zone daily until a Jaguars home game wasn't televised. If this seems a discussion from a bygone era, that indeed is the case. But the spirit of "the streak" wasn't and isn't about writing daily until some Jaguars-related event did or does occur. I have written the O-Zone daily since August 2011 because I am the senior writer for this website, and enough people read the feature daily that it seems in some obscure – and perhaps twisted – way a part of many people's daily routine. For that to be true in a time when the written word has been devalued seems from this perspective pretty cool. And it's not as if I am roofing in the summer or digging trenches; I'm writing about and talking about football and other assorted stuff with a bunch of people who on some level are passionate about the primary subject. That doesn't completely suck.
Rob from the duuuuuuu
Any chance we see a trade to add talent? Pass rusher? Any chance we give Parker Washington some more opportunities?
There's always a chance.
Robert from Elkton
It seems Lawrence has the talent and plays more than well enough to win most games. But he can't stop receivers from dropping passes, or fumbling, or running backs not gaining yards, or the offensive linemen not blocking well enough. He can't stop offensive false starts or defensive holding. He can't cover the other team's receivers or tight ends (seems no one on the team can). I'm afraid his career is going to mirror Archie Manning's … so much talent and promise, but a record of 35–101–3 because the team always stunk.
The Jaguars have had two 9-8 seasons and one losing record in three seasons in Lawrence's career. They won one AFC South title in 2022 and came within a game of winning a second the following season. He's 25 years old. We're far from knowing how this will end.
Jeremy from Gilbert, AZ
If Lawrence can be ruined by coaches, then he wasn't the guy to begin with.
Correct.
Charles from Riverside
Hello, John. Reference was made that we shouldn't reward the current Jags roster with a new stadium based on their recent poor play. I'm thinking the new stadium is for the fans, the City of Jacksonville and an insurance policy on the Jags remaining in town??
The renovated Stadium of the Future ensures the Jaguars will be in Jacksonville for the coming decades. Without renovation, it would have been difficult – perhaps impossible – for the Jaguars to remain in Jacksonville. All NFL teams eventually need new stadiums. This was the City of Jacksonville's and the Jaguars' time.
