The Jacksonville Jaguars won their first three games in the national (and international) spotlight this season. But two prime-time losses in the last three weeks have cast doubt on their ability to perform when the lights are shining brightest.
At the beginning of the season, the Jaguars capitalized on big stages to get back on the right track.
Jacksonville played the Atlanta Falcons in London after dropping games to the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans that put them at 1-2 through the first three weeks. They beat the Falcons 23-7 to reach .500 and start their climb back to the top of the AFC.
Then the Jaguars beat the Buffalo Bills in London to reach 3-2, as they returned to Duval. While Jacksonville hadn’t played in an 8 p.m. slot, they got early-season experience being the featured game.
“It was just so much louder here — just for it to be a regular season game, just for it to be Week 5,” Jaguars running back Travis Etienne Jr. said after the win over Buffalo. “I feel like the intensity, the crowd, everyone was just going crazy.”
Not only did the Jaguars win those games, but they used them to ignite a win streak. Jacksonville won its next game against the Indianapolis Colts before playing the New Orleans Saints on Thursday Night Football in Week 7.
Another prime-time game, and another win. Jacksonville won a close, 31-24 game to achieve a 5-2 record. The Jaguars then won three of their next four and sat at 8-3 ahead of their next featured game — a Monday Night Football matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals without Joe Burrow.
Ahead of their first Monday night game since 2011, the Jaguars knew how significant the spotlight was.
“It’s really just approaching it the same, learning to control your emotions,” Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence said Nov. 27 — a week before the game. “I want the guys to feel relaxed, but at the same time, continue to have that edge that we’ve had the last couple of weeks. … Monday night is a special night. You’re the only game on, everybody is watching you and you want to put your best foot forward.”
Despite Burrow’s absence, Jacksonville lost in front of its home crowd to Jake Browning and the Bengals. While the loss to a backup quarterback looked bad at the moment, Browning’s ascension in the two games has made the result more understandable.
Jacksonville got another shot to earn a prime-time win for the home crowd last week against the Baltimore Ravens.
“It’s exciting for us, but it really honestly doesn’t change much,” Lawrence said a few days before the game. “We still have a job to do, and I look back at the Monday night game. We ended up losing the game and not much to show for playing on a prime-time game and you lose. That’s something where we’ve just got to focus on our job and taking care of business, no matter what time or what day the game is on.”
The Jaguars lost again. They fell to the Ravens in a disappointing 23-7 result. A team that initially thrived under the spotlight has since turned into a team that has come up short on the big stages.
Jacksonville isn’t slated to play any more prime-time games in the regular season, but they’re in the driver’s seat of a close race for a playoff spot.
If the Jaguars advance to the playoffs, their shortcomings in regular season prime-time games will need to be solved, or their postseason run will be a brief one.
