Jaguars get trashed in Buffalo, drop seventh straight

The Jacksonville Jaguars seem to find new and interesting ways to lose games every week now, and this week was no different.

After trailing early by 14 points, thanks to the arm and legs of rookie quarterback Josh Allen, the Jaguars used the run game to regain traction using Leonard Fournette, Carlos Hyde, and TJ Yeldon to accumulate 190 yards on the ground in the first half and go into the locker room tied at 14 a piece.

The Jaguars appeared to be on their way to taking control of the game midway through the third quarter, as Blake Bortles somehow completed a long pass to Donte Moncrief for an apparent touchdown. At that point, all was to be forgiven, then all hell broke loose. Following the play, which would be reversed from a touchdown to Moncrief being down at the one yard line, a melee erupted away from the play and led to Fournette throwing punches and attempting to choke out Bills linebacker Shaq Lawson to the ground. Fournette and Lawson were tossed, the Jaguars went from first and goal from the one yard line to having to settle for a Josh Lambo field goal attempt thanks to awful quarterback play and the loss of their lone weapon, and Lambo pushed the kick left. Ball game.

From that point on, the Bills regained all momentum, culminating in an eight yard touchdown run from the rookie Allen to go up 21-14 to begin the fourth quarter, and eventually adding another field goal. The Jags made it a close score for the gamblers, but in the end they fell 24-21 and dropped their seventh-straight game to fall to 3-8 and guarantee no higher than a .500 season.

While the offense took yet another blow with guard Andrew Norwell being carted off with an ankle injury in the third quarter, once again, the problem remained the stubbornness of this franchise to stick with Bortles under center. Outside of the pass to Moncrief, the team literally could not complete a forward pass besides dump offs to the backs and yet there seems to be an utter refusal to bench Bortles, to this team’s detriment.

With nothing to play for now but pride and draft order, and being outplayed by a rookie quarterback who was by far the most maligned of the 2018 class, keeping Bortles as the starter should get whomever is making the ultimate decision to leave him in there fired.