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Keys to Victories for the Jaguars: The Turnover Battle

It's well known that the Jaguars have had some good games and some really bad games. All three losses came by deficits of 25 points or more. Despite that fact, the Jaguars are at 3-3 and in the thick of the playoff race with a lot of football and a bye week still to come. Learning what went wrong in the blowout losses should be priority number one for the Jaguars staff and I'm sure it is.

It's easy to point to the quarterback position as a major factor in the losses and justifiably so, but that has been talked about ad naseum on this site and just about every other Jaguars related site. The problems in the losses; however, go beyond that and the poor performances are from more than a single player.

One common denominator in the losses has been the Jaguars losing the turnover battle.

Opponent Turnovers Given Up Turnovers Forced
Denver Broncos 0 2
San Diego Chargers 6 3
Philadelphia Eagles 1 0
Indianapolis Colts 0 2
Buffalo Bills 3 0
Tennessee Titans 4 0

 

In all three losses, the Jaguars lost the turnover margin. The Eagles game was the only one that was within 3. The Buffalo game was the only one of the Jaguars' victories that featured the opposing team winning the turnover battle. The only reason the Jaguars got away with that one is because...well they were playing the Bills.

To date, the Jaguars have turned the ball over 14 times and forced 7 turnovers. That's not going to get it done. Again, the quarterbacking woes have been a factor in the large amount of turnovers, but not the sole source of blame. The team has seen fumbles from its most reliable stars (Maurice Jones-Drew, Marcedes Lewis, Mike Thomas and Mike Sims-Walker) as well.

With tough teams such as the Texans, Colts, Giants, Titans and of course, the Chiefs, on the remaining schedule, the Jaguars will need to focus on taking care of the ball and forcing turnovers instead of being victimized by them.