Gene Frenette: It's Christmas week, slumping Jaguars stay in giving mood with loss to Ravens

The worst part for the Jacksonville Jaguars isn’t necessarily the three-game losing streak, which is bad enough. It’s Doug Pederson giving off a vibe after a prime-time beatdown by the Baltimore Ravens that he might be running out of answers.

It’s not good when the head coach has a glazed look in his postgame press conference, then puts out this reality-smacking assessment: “Right now, we’re just not good enough to pull these games out against good football teams. That’s the honest truth. Until we figure that out, it’s going to be rough.”

You’d never know by how Pederson and some players were flummoxed by the Ravens physically pounding them into submission at EverBank Stadium — by a 23-7 count on the Sunday Night Football stage — that the Jaguars were in first place and still in control of their postseason destiny.

For the first time all year, this feels like a team that’s reeling and not quite sure how to recapture its mojo.

“We are professionals and at the end of the day, we got to be in tune with our job,” said seventh-year safety Rayshawn Jenkins. “We got to get this fixed and fast. Playing like this, we won’t survive.”

Jaguars report card: Offense, coaching among big failures in 23-7 loss to Baltimore Ravens

That’s because the Jaguars, starting with quarterback Trevor Lawrence and across the board, are killing themselves with inadequate ball security, exasperating little penalties, dropped passes and lack of situational awareness.

Three straight weeks against AFC North opponents, the Jaguars weren’t good enough to win. Twice against backup quarterbacks of the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns they fell just short, then they were run ragged against Baltimore by Lamar Jackson (12 carries, 97 yards) until the defense finally gave out.

To make things worse, Lawrence failed to get the Jaguars any points on three red-zone trips. Then more bad news came after the game when Lawrence had to be put in concussion protocol, the result of an apparent hit he absorbed on a late fourth-quarter scramble.

With the 8-6 Jaguars falling into a three-way tie atop the AFC South with the Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans, right now they resemble a knocked-down boxer in need of a standing-8 count.

“The complementary football we had in the middle of our season is just out the window,” said tight end Evan Engram. “We got to find a way to get that back.”

Just protect the ball

It’s becoming a tiresome theme that the turnover-prone Jaguars can’t seem to stop giving the ball away.

Lawrence lost two fumbles that turned into 10 Ravens points, none bigger than inexplicably dropping the ball on a first-half scramble inside the Baltimore 20 when nobody touched him.

Instead of the Jaguars likely coming away with three points to tie the game, Ravens cornerback Arthur Maulet scooped up the loose ball and returned it 21 yards to the 40.

“The No. 1 prized possession on the field is the football and we’ve got to do a better job protecting it,” Pederson said.

Thirteen plays after that first Lawrence fumble, Jackson found tight end Isaiah Likely for a 16-yard touchdown, preceded by Baltimore pushing themselves back with a 15-yard, dead-ball, unnecessary roughness penalty.

Midway through the fourth quarter, whatever chance the Jaguars had of rallying to beat the Ravens on this field for a second straight year evaporated with a strip-sack fumble. Lawrence got tagged by Justin Madubuike, lost the ball at his own 19, then another Justin Tucker field goal followed to extend the lead to 23-7.

The Jaguars were cooked by then, draining whatever energy was left from a stoked-up crowd of 68,021. It was almost fitting that four straight Lawrence incompletions from the Ravens’ 13 ended the Jaguars’ final possession.

It punctuated another prime-time defeat, one that suddenly puts the Jaguars’ former stranglehold on a playoff berth in a bit of jeopardy. Their two-game AFC South lead has shriveled up to nothing, in large part due to ball security carelessness.

“We have to understand that the No. 1 thing out there is the football; pre-snap penalties and the football,” Pederson said. “That’s the one thing that’s kind of plagued us all season. We’re just giving points away and it’s hard. We’re making it too hard.”

While it’s great the Jaguars entered the game tied for the most NFL takeaways with 24 (Jenkins’ interception pushed it to 25), Jacksonville is offsetting that with 24 giveaways of its own. Six of those turnovers have come in the last two games.

“It’s the same, we beat ourselves every game,” said Jenkins. “That’s plain and simple, we literally beat ourselves, whether it’s penalties or missed assignments, stuff like that. We just got to get it fixed and it’s easy stuff.”

More: Gene Frenette: Calvin Ridley must be focused, productive receiver for Jaguars to get back on track

Trevor, Jaguars waste big chance

No sequence was more infuriating to the Jaguars, and less excusable, than what transpired at the end of the first half.

Pederson did the right thing on Baltimore’s previous touchdown drive, using all three timeouts on consecutive plays to give his team one last chance to get points.

After driving to the Ravens’ 40, the best pass of the night on a 36-yard Lawrence connection to Zay Jones gave the Jaguars a first down just five yards from the end zone. But with everybody racing down the field as precious seconds ticked away, Lawrence decided not to spike the ball to stop the clock.

Instead, with everybody in hurry-up mode, a quick pass went to Parker Washington right at the line on the left side, but safety Marcus Williams tackled him before he could get out of bounds.

The last three seconds went off the clock before the Jaguars could line up to snap the ball. Had Lawrence spiked the ball initially to kill the clock with 10 seconds left, at least the Jaguars could have hit a reset button and get better organized.

“We’ve scored before in those situations,” said Pederson. “It was just a mistake, I think, by Trevor, obviously, knowing the situation and knowing how much time is left right there. It’s a great learning experience for us from the standpoint of don’t throw it inbounds to be tackled in that situation.”

A great learning experience? Really, coach?

This isn’t a two-minute drill in the first week of training camp. It’s Week 15 of the NFL season. Playoff berths, solo first place in the Jaguars’ division and contention for the No. 1 AFC seed is at stake.

It’s no time to advance the learning curve with a monumental gaffe that took three or seven points off the board. Especially when the Jaguars were being shut out in the first half for the first time all year.

Surprisingly, Pederson said he saw no reason to spike the ball to give his offense and the coaching staff extra time to gather their thoughts.

“You can put it on us, too, put it on us as coaches,” said Pederson. “Coach that situation a little bit better.

“When the pass was completed, I thought we had a good chance of getting to the front pylon.”

The reality is Washington’s only chance to at least give the Jaguars another play was to get out of bounds. He gained only one yard and the clock ticked to :00.

Right at that moment, it felt like the Jaguars had already lost the game and it was only half over.

Lamar’s great escape

The Jaguars did get one big momentum boost when Lawrence found a wide open Jamal Agnew for a 65-yard TD, cutting the lead to 10-7 midway through the third quarter.

Momentarily, it appeared the game might have a dramatic ending, but Jackson the escape artist changed that with another scramble that took the air out of the Jaguars.

On second-and-6, it looked like Dawuane Smoot was going to take him down, but Jackson slithered away. Then looking across the field, he fired a jump-ball pass to Likely in-between defenders Darious Williams and safety Andrew Wingard for a 26-yard completion to the Jaguars’ 4.

That set up a Gus Edwards 1-yard TD plunge for a 17-7 lead, and the Jaguars never recovered. The Ravens’ running game that netted 251 yards would seal the outcome.

“When you get there [to the quarterback], you’re not ever thinking, ‘Oh, he’s going to get out of my grasp.’ “ said Smoot. “He’s just hard to bring down. That’s it. What can I say?”

There’s not much left to say about how the Jaguars can get out of the predicament they’ve put themselves in.

With three games left against opponents whose combined record is 14-28, the toughest being next week at the 7-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Jaguars can’t depend on the Colts and Texans to lose before their Week 18 showdown.

“There’s definitely no panic going on, just real disappointed.” said Engram. “Definitely a really high sense of urgency for the last three weeks. I don’t think any confidence is lost. We’re just not playing our best football.”

A Christmas giveaway?

Around this time last year, the Jaguars had begun to excavate themselves from a 3-7 record and went 6-1 the rest of the way to capture the AFC South. This is a much different set of circumstances.

“I’m not trying to go back to last year, I’m just saying we’ve been here before,” said Agnew. “We know how to get ourselves out of situations. The urgency’s just got to pick up.”

This doesn’t feel like the 2022 Jaguars at all. The tide is rising against them with injuries, including Zay Jones not returning after getting injured with eight minutes remaining. And who knows what the impact will be with Lawrence in concussion protocol?

The Jaguars are reeling and don’t even try to deny it. As Engram noted: “Got to get back on track. We’re off track right now.”

For the first time all season, it’s obvious a sliver of doubt has creeped into the Jaguars’ psyche. They haven’t lost confidence, but the swagger has most certainly diminished.

Will they right the ship? This cryptic response from Wingard makes you wonder.

“I hope we respond, I really do,” said Wingard. “We got a lot of guys that will, other guys need to.”

The Jaguars, who still control their playoff destiny, find themselves barely hanging on to first place in the AFC South.

It’s Christmas week. They better decide real quick whether they want to stop giving away the division.

Gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540; Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @genefrenette   

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Christmas giveaway: Jaguars can't overcome mistakes in loss to Ravens