The Jacksonville Jaguars’ 31-point loss to the San Francisco 49ers was about as bad as it gets.
An offense that has struggled to live up to expectations was at its worst, managing only a field goal and turning the ball over four times. A Jacksonville defense that has often carried the load in 2023 gave up four touchdowns and 437 yards of total offense, and failed to record a takeaway.
“We got our ass whooped,” Jaguars offensive tackle Cam Robinson said. “We can take from it what we can take from it, but I think we just flat-out got our ass whooped. It is what it is. It’s not more complicated than that.
“Just flush it. I think there’s gonna be a game like this every year. Not that you want there to be, but it just happens. Last year, Detroit beat the [expletive] out of us. This year, San Fran beat the [expletive] out of us. We’ll get better. We’ll come in and watch it. We know what we need to fix, we’ll fix it, and get better.”
Frustration and disappointment were a common theme in the Jaguars locker room. Panic wasn’t, though. Like Robinson, players expressed confidence that the 34-3 loss won’t come to define the team.
“We’re definitely mad as hell, first and foremost,” outside linebacker Josh Allen said. “Obviously, we just played so those emotions are still inside of us. I think we should all be pissed. But at the end of the day we’ve got eight more games left.”
“They just simply beat us,” wide receiver Christian Kirk said. “They beat us in all aspects in every single phase. We didn’t help ourselves out with the turnovers. … We’re going to watch it on film. It’s just all about executing. Especially when you play teams like that, you have to execute.”
No player gave himself a harsher review after the game than quarterback Trevor Lawrence. The third-year passer finished with two interceptions, one fumble and zero touchdown passes.
“It’s one of the worst games I’ve probably played in my career,” Lawrence said. “So, I feel that and I take responsibility for that and, yeah, we couldn’t do anything right today, but you got to flush it too. That’s the thing, it sucks, but the reality is that a 31-point loss — and that’s crazy to even say, but a 31-point loss is the same as a three-point loss, and we lost today. We have got to move on.
“It seemed like everything went wrong, and right when we got momentum, we just shot ourselves in the foot. So, I take a lot of responsibility for it. Played really, really bad today.”
Jacksonville has to turn the page fast because the Houston Texans are coming on strong in the AFC South race. They’ll get that chance next week with a home game against the Tennessee Titans.
