And maybe that was the problem.

San Diego isn’t considered an elite team but they sure played like it. For the first three weeks of the season, the Jaguars defense was dominant. It seemed like they could smother just about anybody. And they had a mild swagger that’s necessary to carry that through the season. But two weeks in a row now, they’ve been gashed by the opponents. First by Peyton Manning through the air, and Sunday by the Chargers on the ground.

It was 7-0, 14=0 and 21-0 before the Jaguars were able to muster any offense and that’s not how they’re built. The defense isn’t supposed to let anybody get away like that. But the Chargers seemed to find the holes in the defense without much difficulty and built a lead the Jaguars couldn’t match. Don’t forget, Jack Del Rio said he’d much prefer a 10-9 win than a shootout. So this one will drive him crazy. .The rushing yards and the turnovers are things he talks about all the time. “Two fundamental areas I preach and believe in failed us,” Del Rio told reporters after the game. “It's a recipe for an ugly day. They are issues that made it the kind of day we just experienced. It was an ugly display of football.”

All told, San Diego had 176 yards rushing but LaDanian Tomlinson had only 56 of those. A guy named Jesse Chatman, whose previous claim to fame was that he led the NFL in rushing in the preseason, ripped off 103 yards on just 11 carries including a 31 yard touchdown run that put the game away. This clearly wasn’t the run stuffing, smothering Jaguars defense that had gotten the job done in the first three weeks.

Some of it might have to do with a position switch by Pro Bowl defensive tackle Marcus Stroud. Stroud moved out to defensive end against San Diego, trying to take advantage of a match up against a rookie offensive tackle. It left the Jaguars vulnerable in the middle. “We were short on the line and they needed somebody to go out there. I do what the coach tells me to do to help the team,” Stroud said.

“We have to go back to doing the things we do to stop the run,” Stroud added. “We need to go back to our techniques.”

Donovin Darius was victimized several times in the passing game, something teams are starting to game plan when looking at the Jaguars defense. Darius is a good clean-up guy, and can force at the point of attack, but can’t cover in space and is dominated by athletic tight ends or backs that get isolated on him one on one.

Byron Leftwich had his best day as a pro when you look at the statistics. His numbers, 36-54 for 357 and a TD were his best ever but much of that was in a catch up mode when the game was out of reach. So two weeks in a row Leftwich has gone for more than 300 yards and the Jaguars have lost. Which means they’re not built that way. They’re built to control the ball, stuff the other team and win the field position battle.

It’ll be an interesting weeks of practice for the Jaguars. They’re a young team that got caught up in themselves and paid for it in San Diego. Everybody should expect ups and downs from this team, but things don’t get any easier in the near future. They’re next three opponents are coming off bye weeks starting with Kansas City next Sunday. Threw in the fact that including the trip to San Diego 3 of the 4 games in this “quarter “ of the season are on the road, we’ll find out what they’re made of pretty quick.