The Jacksonville Jaguars started fast against the New Orleans Saints, recording 75-yard touchdown drives on two of their first three possessions. Then the offense hit a brick wall.
The next seven drives for the Jaguars finished with five punts, a turnover on downs, and a field goal. Finally, after the drought allowed the Saints to tie the game with 15 straight points, Jaguars wide receiver Christian Kirk broke free for 44-yard touchdown that proved to be the game-winner.
It was a fourth straight win for a Jaguars team that is starting to re-emerge as an AFC contender. But the mid-game stretch of offensive futility is a problem the team can’t keep running into, says Kirk.
“We hit that lull that we’ve been seeing the past couple of weeks,” Kirk said after the win. “I know that’s going to be a point of emphasis for us, just finding ways to not find ourselves in these situations, especially when we have a lead like we did.
“When you get into a lull like that you give good teams an opportunity to come back, so that stuff will get us beat, ultimately. I’m just glad we were able to make a play when it mattered, but we definitely have some room for improvement.”
Against the Buffalo Bills in Week 5, the Jaguars scored 11 first quarter points before punting three times and fumbling away the ball twice in a five-drive stretch.
“You just can’t have those let downs and lulls in football games,” Jaguars coach Doug Pederson said Friday. “We’ve got to continue to work on that, we’ve got to continue as coaches to look at those lulls and see if there’s something we can do different schematically.
“Then, it’s the players, the ultimate focus and ultimate concentration for the entire game, that’s a tough thing to do especially when you’re in that environment on a short week. The fatigue begins to set in the second half of the football game then the first thing to go is your mind. All things that we’re learning as a team together and we continue to work on them.”
The Jaguars built a double-digit lead in the first half of each of their last four games.
