JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – After a historically bad five-game stretch, Jaguars coach Doug Marrone said that his team needs to find a dose of confidence to get it through the rest of the season.
That’s not going to be easy.
With injuries piling up and an offense that’s going nowhere, the Jaguars are coming off of their worst loss of a miserable season, a 45-10 blowout on Sunday against the Chargers that sunk the team to a new low.
Marrone said on Monday that his message to players after another humiliating loss was to get back to work and regain an edge that they’d lost.
“We’re not playing with a lot of confidence,” Marrone said. “We’ve got to coach with better confidence, we’ve got to play with better confidence and that’s my responsibility. I’ve got to do a good job and fight. It’s obviously disappointing.
“There’s a lot of words that can describe how we feel but we don’t have that opportunity to kind of sit back and feel sorry for ourselves We’ve got to go, we’ve got to fight.”
The Jaguars’ fifth straight loss on Sunday ensured another non-winning season for the franchise, its 11th in the final 12 seasons. It was also the first time since the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1986 that a team has lost five consecutive games by 17 points or more.
Jacksonville has lost games by 23, 20, 22, 17 and 35 during its skid. Its last two games, both at home, were essentially over by halftime. The Jaguars trailed by 25 at the break in a 28-11 loss to the Bucs and 21 at halftime against the Chargers.
Los Angeles put up a season-high 525 yards on a battered Jaguars defense. Starting quarterback Phillip Rivers didn’t even play the fourth quarter.
Jacksonville got mixed news on the injury front.
Marrone said that receiver D.J. Chark rolled his ankle and would be evaluated further this week. Safety Ronnie Harrison cleared concussion protocol and should be able to return Sunday against the Raiders. Linebacker Jake Ryan injured a hamstring and is likely out for an extended period of time.