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Why was Paul Poslusnzy covering Travis Benjamin?

Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images

One of the most baffling events of the Jacksonville Jaguars 38-14 loss to the San Diego Chargers on Sunday was a play that saw Jacksonville's Paul Posluszny, a middle linebacker, get matched up one-on-one with wide receiver Travis Benjamin. Before the ball was snapped, you could tell quarterback Phillip Rivers immediately recognized the mismatch and decided he would exploit it, to the tune of a long touchdown pass that saw Poz desperately trying to chase the speedy Benjamin.

How does that even happen? How do the Jaguars end up in an alignment where their slowest linebacker ends up in man coverage against the Chargers fastest receiver?

"There's pressures that we have that we try to disguise. If you want to be multiple in some of your looks and how you're doing pressures, that matchup is difficult. Some of our base things, I don't want to go into too much detail, there are times with Poz that the linebackers have to do that," Bradley told reporters in his Monday conference call when asked about the play. "It's something we've done before and it's not been an issue, but he has great speed there. There's things that we observe as coaches and we look at matchups and things like that, and that was a tough matchup."

Let's be honest: There should never be times when Paul Posluszny is matched up with a wide receiver. If it happens, the Jaguars should immediately call timeout and get out of the play. We all understand that when you're going to bring pressure, especially with a defensive back, you're going to get caught in some bad matchups, but Posluszny on Travis Benjamin is one that can never, ever happen.

"We all take responsibility on that one," Bradley added.

Poz tried to take responsibility for the mismatch, but one of his teammates quickly interjected and stated he shouldn't have been put in that situation, and he's right.

The only persons responsible for that play are defensive coordinator Todd Wash and head coach Gus Bradley. The Jaguars get caught in the situations all too often and while you can write some off in just getting caught in a pressure package and eating the bad matchup because the rush didn't get home, for a team who doesn't really blitz much, it seems to happen way too often.