Written by Eric Edholm at YahooSports.com
Gus’s goose is almost cooked.
After watching the undisciplined Jacksonville Jaguars flail around without purpose against a middling Tennessee Titans team, it’s impossible not to think that head coach Gus Bradley is in real peril.
The Titans beat the Jaguars, 36-22, on Thursday night, and Bradley’s record as a head coach fell to 14-41 — a .255 batting average, which is the worst win percentage for a coach with 50 or more games since the 1940s. Midway through his fourth season, the progress of this talented roster has been nonexistent; in fact, the 2-5 Jaguars have regressed.
In a week when Jaguars owner Shad Khan met with the team to ask “why are we not winning and what can we do to fix it?” all he needed to do was wait for Thursday night to peer down from his luxury suite for the clearest of answers.
Midway through the second quarter it was beyond obvious the Jaguars were quitting on their coach — on this night, anyway. The Titans had outgained the Jaguars, 260 yards to 35 at that point, and the one statistic in which the Jaguars held an unmistakable edge: mental mistakes.
The game could be summed up on two straight plays right then: clunky Titans tight end Phillip Supernaw weaving through awful tackle attempts for 30 yards (and it would have been 44 had he not stepped on the sideline) and 14 more yards the next play when DeMarco Murray cruised past lethargy to the eleventh power for an easy touchdown run. It was 24-zip at that point and goodnight, Gus.
The Jaguars’ drafts and free-agent additions brought hope and talent, but on Thursday all those gifted players did their best to show just how undisciplined this team is under Bradley’s watch. The 354 yards the Titans gained in the first half, many of them coming on broken tackles and missed assignments, were the most by an NFL team in a half this season.
Even a second-half flourish of sorts by the Jaguars — another case of too little too late — aren’t likely to be enough to save him now. To the fans suggesting the Jags use more of the hurry-up offense, we beg of you: That’s not what’s holding this team back. Certainly not more than the complete and utter lack of order with which they play on almost a weekly basis.
Quarterback Blake Bortles had a miserable first half, which has become the norm this season. CBS analyst Phil Simms said early in the broadcast that Bortles admitted to him this week that his screwy delivery (in which he sometimes brings the ball to his hip before throwing?) has gotten longer and that “he doesn’t know why.” That’s awful — and those crummy mechanics were a big reason why Bortles was 8-for-16 passing for 64 yards in the first half.
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