Jaguars loss is what they needed, says A.J. Bouye

Many Jacksonville Jaguars fans have been lamenting Sunday’s 44-33 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, but in the end it was a meaningless game since anything higher than the No. 3 seed in the AFC playoffs was going to be exceedingly difficult. The game may not have been a total loss however, as a kick in the teeth could be exactly what this Jaguars team needs headed into the playoffs.

“I hate to say this, but we needed this,” Bouye told John Reid of The Florida Times-Union. “It humbled a lot of people. We recognize it and we’ve got to get ready for (Tennessee) and just get it rolling going into the playoffs.”

Sunday’s game against the Tennessee Titans doesn’t matter much, for the Jaguars at least, but it’s good a humbling loss like the one to the 49ers happened with a game remaining before the start of the playoffs and not on the road to a division rival. It’s a good reality check for a defense full of talented young playmakers who may have gotten a little full of themselves after all the accolades.

“We’ve got to deal with the things of this game like penalties, the emotions running high and bickering and stuff,’’ Jalen Ramsey told Reid of The Florida Times-Union. “But it’s not something that’s been carrying on. That’s not an issue. We’re confident and we believe that we’re the best, they just got the better of us.’’

The fight on the sideline between Malik Jackson and Aaron Colvin was surprising to see, but it’s a defense that’s not accustomed to being pushed around and marched on like they were Sunday. There didn’t seem to be much internal bickering after that initial blow up, but there were a handful of dumb penalties in key moments where players let emotion get the best of them.

It was a game they can look back on and see exactly what not to do and have one game left to show it’s all correctable before heading into the deep end of the AFC playoffs.