Instant analysis as Jacksonville is shut out by the Tennessee Titans

This season really can’t end soon enough for Jacksonville. After a report dropped on Saturday from Tom Pelissero detailing the deteriorating relationship between coach Urban Meyer and his staff and players, the team looked like one that had no interest in winning for this staff anymore.

The Jaguars never had it against the Tennessee Titans, getting swept in the season series against their division rival after a 20-0 shutout loss, the first time Tennessee has held an opponent to zero points on its home field since 2000. It was also the first time Jacksonville has been blanked since 2009.

There really isn’t much positive to say at all about this game. It was an entirely lifeless performance and the team was never in synch at all on the offensive side of the ball. While the defense actually had a pretty solid game, it wasn’t nearly enough to overcome the most anemic offensive performance of the season as Jacksonville has now lost nine of its last 10 against Tennessee.

Here are the notes and takeaways from a game that Jags fans will want to repress memories off.

Jacksonville’s run game goes AWOL, things get ugly for Lawrence

Hey, to Meyer and the staff’s credit, they at least had the insight to let the best offensive player on the entire roster, running back James Robinson, see the field in this game. In a move you wouldn’t see from any other franchise in this league, Robinson was benched last week after a single mistake, a lost fumble. He had one the prior week, as well, but those were the first two lost fumbles of his two-year career.

Robinson got the start this week and saw the bulk of the carries, but that didn’t prove to make much of a difference. He ran the ball six times for four yards, which still made him the team’s leading rusher. The Jaguars had just eight rushing yards as a team, an almost unbelievable figure.

That forced quarterback Trevor Lawrence to get aggressive in the passing game, and the rookie said that he wanted to air it out more this week. He got his wish, but it wasn’t the outcome he, the staff or the fanbase were looking for. He tossed four interceptions to no touchdowns, his worst outing of the season by far. He threw for 221 yards, but completed just 24-of-40 passes.

One of those interceptions, the first, wasn’t his fault. It came as a result of this drop from Laviska Shenault Jr., one of many plays this season that has to be driving Lawrence crazy.

Shenault point shaving pic.twitter.com/oW0FCIe2QM

— Billy M (@BillyM_91) December 12, 2021

However, the other three were Lawrence’s fault. He had to force some throws to try to get the Jaguars back in the game, and he made some ill-advised decisions. But even when he was making good decisions, he had to contend with head-scratching plays like this one.

pic.twitter.com/f4Mx6rhmHS

— Laurie Fitzpatrick (@LaurieFitzptrck) December 12, 2021

He also had to deal with a lot of pressure that had him land on his back quite a bit. It was a bad game for the offensive line, specifically right tackle Jawaan Taylor, and Lawrence was sacked three times and hit six times.

This team has had some offensive clunkers this season, especially in recent weeks, but today’s 192-yard, four-turnover outing was almost certainly the worst.

A strong pass-rush proves to be a non-factor

I don’t want to spend too much time listing the numerous shortcomings on the offensive side without giving some credit to the defense. Because as bad as the offense played, the defense had given up just 10 points until the waning minutes of the third quarter. Tennessee eventually pulled away and added 10 more, but the Jags’ defense, which has played much better toward the end of the season but gave up 37 points last week, had a good bounce-back performance in this one.

Without running back Derrick Henry, the Titans couldn’t get much going on the ground, either. D’Onta Foreman had 47 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries, while quarterback Ryan Tannehill also made a few plays with his legs, finding the end zone on a 29-yard rushing day.

Tannehill had a more forgettable game through the air, completing 20 passes for 31 yards and 191 yards with no touchdowns. A lot of his struggles in this game can be credited to an excellent game from the Jaguars front seven, who sacked him four times and put 10 hits on him.

To make things more difficult for Tannehill, he didn’t have one of his top receiving targets in A.J. Brown yet again. Without Brown in the game, the secondary was able to focus on Julio Jones, who was held to just four catches for 33 yards. All in all, it was a very solid game for the Jacksonville defense. It’s just a shame that the offense was completely incapable of helping out.

Other notes

• Marvin Jones Jr. led the team in receiving with six catches for 70 yards, an interesting performance following his apparent altercation with Meyer, according to the Pelissero report. He was followed closely by Laquon Treadwell with 68 yards on four catches, another solid game after leading the team in receiving the last two weeks. Much of that came on one catch, a nice play on a deep ball in double coverage for a 41-yard gain.
• James O’Shaughnessy’s return to the field continues to be fairly disappointing. He had four catches on six targets, but totaled just 21 yards with a lost fumble. No other tight end for Jacksonville was targeted in this game.
• The Jags had cornerback Shaquill Griffin back in the starting lineup this week, and both he had Tyson Campbell played very well in this one, holding Tennessee’s top-two receivers, Jones and Nick Westbrook-Ihkine to 64 combined yards. However, nickel Rudy Ford and the linebackers struggled in coverage against the Titans tight ends, as Geoff Swaim and Anthony Firkser had 45 and 34 yards, respectively.
• It was a good team effort to get pressure on Tannehill in this one. Four different players totaled sacks, with those players being Roy Robertson-Harris, Jihad Ward, Dawuane Smoot, and Damien Wilson. Smoot also had three quarterback hits, while Griffin, Taven Bryan, and Adam Gotsis registered hits on Tannehill but no sacks.
• Wilson had an especially solid game, at least against the run. In addition to his sack, he tied for the lead on the team in tackles with Myles Jack as they each totaled 10, and he also had two tackles for loss. He struggled a bit more in pass coverage, though.