The Jacksonville Jaguars were embarrassed by the Detroit Lions on Sunday in a 14-31 defeat, and are now 1-7. But please don’t let the 14 points trick you either; the Jaguars two touchdowns came in the fourth quarter when the game was already out of hand. The Jaguars managed to prevent the Lions from scoring in the first quarter by forcing a punt and watching Jason Hanson miss a 47 yard field goal. However, the Jaguars did nothing the entire game until the fourth quarter, so they didn’t capitalize on the Lions early struggles.

After two failed attempts to score, the Lions then unleashed Mikel Leshoure on the Jaguars, and he bullied his way into the end zone three times for the Lions. Additionally, the Jaguars had no answer for Matthew Stafford and his group of receivers, allowing them to complete 22 of their 33 pass attempts.

If there is anything positive to take away from the game for the Jaguars, I would say the play of Blaine Gabbert was a positive. Aside from his two late game interceptions, he did complete 27 of his 38 attempts, but he needs help. Maurice Jones-Drew is sourly missed, and whether or not he would have been enough to help the Jaguars win, he at least would have helped made the game watchable.

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The Jaguars hung in there until the end against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field, and we are left wondering how big of a difference would Maurice Jones-Drew have made? The Jacksonville Jaguars were only down 12-14 at halftime, which should have been 13-14 if they didn’t try for an unnecessary two-point conversion which failed.

The Jaguars had no problem moving the ball through the air against the Packers, Blaine Gabbert played very well, he threw for 303 yards with one touchdown and didn’t have any turnovers. The turnover that proved to be the most costly in the game was the blocked punt in the first quarter which the Packers recovered in the end zone for a touchdown.

The Jaguars were able to limit Rodgers to only 186 yards passing, but those yards were efficient yards, two of his 22 completions went for touchdowns, one to Cobb and the other to Driver.

For the Jaguars, their most outstanding player was Cecil Shorts, perhaps trying to make amends for his fumble in overtime in week seven which cost the Jaguars the game, he had eight receptions for 116 yards. However, the teams other wide out and fifth overall selection in the 2012 NFL Draft, Justin Blackmon played a horrible game. Yes, Blackmon had 67 yards on four receptions, but when the Jaguars were down 15-21, Blaine Gabbert threw the ball his way on two consecutive plays that could have resulted in a decent amount of yards, and more importantly a fresh set of downs. On both plays Blackmon was open and the passes were well thrown, however, Blackmon didn’t seem aware of the targets and both passes fell incomplete because of his inability to locate the balls in the air.

The Jacksonville Jaguars are now 1-6 and the remainder of this season will be devoted to the young players developing and the everyone else competing for a job in the 2013 season. The Jaguars will host the Detroit Lions next season, and will attempt to spoil their season by sending them home with an upsetting loss that can ruin their season. Maurice Jones-Drew will not be back next week.

Photo by: Karl Anderson/Icon SMI

The Jacksonville Jaguars gave up a 14-point lead to the Oakland Raiders, then proceeded to fumble away their opportunity to win in overtime and set up the Raiders with a 40-yard field goal attempt. After the Jaguars jumped out to a 14-point second half lead, the Raiders started to put together some drives and they were able to outscore the Jaguars 20-3 from that point.

The Jaguars forced three turnovers in the game, but it would be their only turnover of the game that proved to be the most costly. With QB Blaine Gabbert, and RB Maurice Jones-Drew, both out due to injuries sustained during the game, the Jaguars had to put their hopes into the hands of backup QB, Chad Henne. Henne got sacked on the first play in overtime to set the Jaguars up with a 2nd and 17, but on the second down Henne found Cecil Shorts eight yards down the field. The only problem was that Shorts was stripped and the fumble was recovered by the Raiders with the ball already in field goal position for the strong legged Sebastian Janikowski to hit a 40-yard field goal to end the game.

The Jaguars are now left with a 1-5 record and will have to play the Packers in Lambeau Field next week. The biggest concerns for the Jaguars are at the quarterback and running back positions. Blaine Gabbert was playing very well until he left the game with an injured shoulder, and his status for the Jaguars week eight game against the Packers remains uncertain. However, for Jacksonville’s star running back, Maurice Jones-Drew, who left the game in the first quarter with a foot injury, he has already been ruled out for next week.

Photo by: John Sommers/Icon SMI

We would like to start this post by congratulating the Jacksonville Jaguars for not getting a loss on Sunday, which sadly is one of the better perks of having a Bye week for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Because there was no game during week six for the Jaguars, we will take time today look into the rest of the AFC South and see how they fared this week, and we will discuss the devastating loss delivered to the Jaguars week seven opponent, the Oakland Raiders.

So, how did the Jaguars division rivals play during week six? We all know about the Titans upset victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers that occurred on Thursday night, and that would also be the only victory from an AFC South team during week six. The Texans and Colts both lost their games pretty badly. The Colts played at 1:00pm EST and were demolished by a motivated New York Jets squad. They didn’t score any touchdowns, and they were unable to stop Shonn Green who just had his way with the Colts when running the ball. For the Texans, they also struggled on the defensive end, but they were victims of Aaron Rodgers and the Packers aerial attack. Rodgers threw six touchdowns and no interceptions, and the Packers were able to limit Foster to only 29 yards on 17 carries. However, that was only the Texans first loss, and it looks like they are running away with the division.

Another game that interested us and the Jacksonville Jaguars was the Raiders vs. Falcons game. The Raiders played a great game and lost by 3-points, which came on a game winning field goal from Matt Bryant. The Raiders were fighting to try and turn their season around, but came up short in the end, and that is a loss that likely devastated and demoralized the Oakland Raiders. The Jacksonville Jaguars will need to exploit that next week by trying to hit some big plays early and potentially running away with the game. But this is the Jaguars we are talking about, it is never that easy and will likely be a close game that will come down to the end. Check back later this week for our in-depth game preview of the Jaguars vs. Raiders game.