Jacksonville Jaguars: Too many sour notes in Music City

Doug Marrone decided that the Jacksonville Jaguars would play their starters and play to win in Week 17, but he should have rested his players.

The Jacksonville Jaguars are the AFC South champions and are the third seed in the AFC playoffs. Head coach Doug Marrone decided, rather boldly, that Jacksonville would play to win their Week 17 game against the Tennessee Titans, however.

This, even though the Jaguars were locked into the third seed regardless of whether they won or lost in Tennessee.

Ryan O’Halloran of Jacksonville.com reported last week:

"“Make no mistake about it so there’s not a lot of talk about it during the week: We’re going to play to win and we’re going to do everything possible to win this game, period,” Marrone said during a conference call. “I’m not even thinking about what happens beyond that. That’s the way we’re going to go about our business this week.”"

Did they do everything possible to win the game? Everybody knew that Tennessee had to win to grab a playoff spot. Seems like Marrone’s words rang hollow during the 15-10 loss. Perhaps it was too cold for the Jaguars? Maybe a last minute change of mind by Marrone and Tom Coughlin?

With a guaranteed playoff spot, it makes since to rest some starters rather than risk injury. A collective gasp went up from Jaguars fans when Blake Bortles was hit around the knees. Although Bortles was not injured on the play, he could have been and potentially a serious knee injury.

Jacksonville’s defense scored the only touchdown in the loss. Yannick Ngakoue scooped and scored with a Tennessee fumble. Ngakoue scored his first career touchdown on that 67-yard gallop. The Jaguars defense scored seven touchdowns this season while five were scoop and scores on fumbles.

Jaydon Mickens had a bad day, though. His decision to block instead of fair catching the punt cost the Jaguars three points. After that, he fumbled another kick, which pinned the Jacksonville offense deep. Mickens has played well since signing with the team, but that wasn’t the case on Sunday.

On offense, Bortles had two more interceptions. He has thrown five interceptions in the last two games, which is more than he threw in Weeks 6 through 15. His quarterback rating was a terrible 33.7 and his season’s worst. Is that what Marrone had envisioned going into Week 17?

Penalties also hurt the Jaguars at the most inopportune spots. A Jacksonville punt had Tennessee pinned back on their own 5-yard line. Tennessee challenged the play as to how many Jaguars were on the field. Bortles and Josh Wells were still on the field when the ball was snapped. Talk about no sense of urgency by those two. The following punt sailed into the end zone for the touchback and Tennessee gained 15 yards in field position.

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For a team that would do everything possible to win, there were too many sour notes in Music City. The offense was very vanilla and boring. The fake punt plays must have run their course for the season. It’s great to see Jacksonville in the playoffs but it’s better that they play Buffalo instead of Tennessee.