National Football League

The Jaguars have lost 4 straight. They still believe in their own potential

Updated Oct. 26, 2022 8:55 p.m. ET

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To understand how far the Jacksonville Jaguars have come, look back to January, during their end-of-season media availability for the 2021 campaign.  

Then-interim head coach Darrell Bevell and players judged their season, a losing one at 3-14 filled with dysfunction, through the lens of the closeness of their locker room and how they showed up each day. As the year concluded with a stunning victory over the Indianapolis Colts, ending the AFC South foe's hopes of making the playoffs, cornerback Tyson Campbell said, "I was just happy to see us do well in the last game." Linebacker Damien Wilson (now with the Carolina Panthers ) said the win was important in that it showed the franchise that it can beat teams in the division and play with more consistency. 

Many of the remarks were typical of a losing team: finding moral victories in the small things; little talk of winning at a high level. 

"I think the question that you guys kept asking me was, ‘what do these guys have to play for? What do they have to play for?' Right?" Bevell said of winning in the 2021 season finale. "It showed you right there that they did have a lot to play for. … Out of the playoffs. A divisional opponent. To be able to get those guys when a lot of people thought there wasn't a lot to play for, I think that's really what I'd like to hang my hat on."

The current Jaguars hang their hats on more than just pride. 

They hang their hats on winning, too. 

Just look at edge rusher Josh Allen, one of the leaders of the team, visibly frustrated, talking about Jacksonville's struggles finishing games after Sunday's 23-17 loss to the New York Giants — not only their fourth straight loss, but their fourth straight loss by one possession. 

There was urgency in his voice. 

"It's not a, ‘we gonna be aight. We gonna be good. We have to move forward.' We have to figure this s–t out. Right now," Allen said. "It's going to take everybody in this locker room to figure it out right now, coaches included. We have to figure this out right now. It's important to us, important to this team." 

At 2-5 and tied for the league's longest losing streak, the 2022 Jaguars could easily be chalked up as "the same ol' Jags." But they've tasted success under new coach Doug Pederson, who's brought stability to the franchise. They won back-to-back games by 20-plus points early in the season after not winning one game by 20 in five years. 

Albeit for a brief time, Jacksonville was humming, with an ascending Trevor Lawrence playing efficient football and a defense limiting points and creating takeaways. In September, Lawrence was the AFC Offensive Player of the Month and linebacker Devin Lloyd was the AFC Defensive Rookie of the Month. 

The Jaguars still believe they're that team that caught everyone's eyes at the start of the year. 

"You just have to move on to the next one and go get the next one and just get some of this momentum back because we really believe we're a great team," Lawrence said Sunday. "When we put it all together, we are. I think that's important. ... I believe that we're going to do it, and we just have to go do it."

Did national media hype from the two-game winning streak get to the Jaguars' heads? No, according to receiver Christian Kirk.

"We feel like the underdog always and we're always going to be the underdog," he said earlier this month, after Jacksonville's loss to Philadelphia, the start of the skid. "And we're just going to keep fighting to prove to ourselves that we can be the team that we know we can be. When we're at our best, we feel like we can play with anybody."

Rediscovering that success should start on defense for the Jaguars. Through the first five games of the season, Jacksonville had nine takeaways and was allowing just 16 points and 313.8 yards per game. In the last two games, the Jaguars allowed 28.5 points and 435 yards per contest. They haven't forced a turnover in three weeks. 

Pederson acknowledged that teams have been playing with more tempo and using the quick passing game and RPOs to neutralize the Jaguars' defensive front. 

But he also sees ways to attack that. 

"Let them maybe come off the ball a little bit faster, roll off the ball, more straight rushes, whatever it is we can do to push the pocket," Pederson said Monday of possible adjustments. "I think it's just a matter of us sticking to our game plan, whatever the game-plan rush package is that week, and if we need to make changes in-game, we make changes in-game. Somehow let these guys free up and rush."

There's a mindset that the Jaguars can do it. Get the season on track and be one of the better teams in the league. 

At the very least, the Jaguars have an attitude that was absent in previous seasons. 

"You should have heard the guys in the locker room after the game," Lawrence said. "Guys are so passionate about it. You put so much work in. That's the cool thing is that the only thing that anybody cares about is winning. It's not about stats. It's not about someone getting the ball or a guy getting a bunch of sacks or whatever it is. It's just everybody wants to win, and that's why people are so pissed off because we're not finding a way to do that right now. 

"It's going to come though," he added. "I believe that and we just have to go do it." 

Ben Arthur is the AFC South reporter for FOX Sports. He previously worked for The Tennessean/USA TODAY Network, where he was the Titans beat writer for a year and a half. He covered the Seattle Seahawks for SeattlePI.com for three seasons (2018-20) prior to moving to Tennessee. You can follow Ben on Twitter at @benyarthur.

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