The Jacksonville Jaguars fell to the San Diego Chargers on Monday Night Football 38-14. Early in the game the Jaguars fell behind 10-0 on a 13-yard Mike Tolbert touchdown run and a field goal. The Jaguars rallied back however, as rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbert led back to back touchdown drives, the first time in the season he had done so. After that however, Philip Rivers and the Chargers offense went to work, picking at the Jaguars decimated secondary. Before halftime, the Chargers scored back to back touchdowns with just 1:26 left on the clock. Rivers hit wide receiver Vincent Brown on a 22-yard touchdown to take the 17-14 lead. On the ensuing Jaguars drive, Gabbert was picked off by safety Eric Weddle and then the bottom fell out.
Three plays later, Philip Rivers connected with Vincent Jackson for a 35-yard touchdown pass right before halftime, going up 24-14. The Chargers didn't take their foot off the pedal in the second half, with Rivers hitting Malcolm Floyd deep down the sideline for a 52-yard touchdown pass. All night long, Rivers picked on the Jaguars secondary that was missing Rashean Mathis, Derek Cox, and William Middleton. Replacements Kevin Rutland and Ashton Youboty were beat most of the game, so bad so that Youboty was benched in favor of Morgan Trent, who was signed last week.
With a league leading amount of players on injured reserve, it was just a matter of time for the defense to completely fall apart. It might get worse too, with defensive end John Chick going down with a reported patella injury. Chick's knee bent awkwardly and he laid on the ground pounding his fist and writhing in pain. It's just another in the long season of bad injuries on the Jaguars defensive front.
The defense wasn't helped out by the Jaguars offense last night, either. After the Gabbert interception, the offense couldn't seem to get out of it's own way. The offensive line struggled to contain a very mediocre Chargers pass rush. The rookie quarterback was antsy in the pocket and skittish. The wide receivers struggled to get any separation and when they did the rookie quarterback struggled to put a pass anywhere close.