Compounding the poor performance is the timing of it as the Jaguars had played themselves into playoff contention with their win over Green Bay and in doing so, declared themselves as a player on the league’s big stage. But with everything to play for, a post-season berth under their own control, a home game against a division rival, the Jaguars played their worst game of the year and perhaps the worst game in the history of the franchise.

“Not a good time to have a bad game,” Head Coach Jack Del Rio quietly said in his post-game press conference. “Until somebody tells me we can’t go, I’m not conceding anything,” the Jaguars head coach repeated his playoff mantra for the past couple of weeks, adding, “but you can’t play like that and expect to be a playoff team.”

Were they flat?

Del Rio didn’t buy that saying, “we were ready to play. You are correct to point out that after big wins on the road against Indianapolis and Green Bay we didn’t get the job done against Houston, but after a big emotional game against Pittsburgh, we came right back and were ready to play the next week.” I don’t know you can say the team was flat. They do have a tendency to strut a little too long after big wins. I can only attribute that to youth. Sometimes it takes a few times getting smacked down when you think you’re hot in order to figure out how to win every week in the NFL. Veteran players, and in tern veteran teams know it’s every week, every game, every play that makes the difference between the contenders and the pretenders.

The Steelers seem to be the one team that can play like that every week, every play under Head Coach Bill Cowher. The Jaguars are leaning that way, but they’re not there yet. Searching around for reasons, there weren’t many to be found either from Del Rio’s post-game comments or in the locker room.

On defense, the Texans gashed the Jaguars in the run game, piling up yards with ease. “When you don’t gap it out our properly,” Del Rio explained, “it doesn’t work.” That happened once before, against San Diego and the Jaguars couldn’t stop the run. You’d think that 15 games into a 16 game season you wouldn’t encounter that kind of basic problem again. “It’s a game you play and if you don’t play it right, that’s what happens,” Del Rio added.

It seemed like every time there was a special teams play, the ball was on the ground, but the Jaguars weren’t able to grab any of them, adding to the coach’s, not to mention the fans, frustration. And on offense, Fred Taylor was missing, “scratched” from the game right before kickoff with a sprained MCL. But can one player deflate the entire team? Del Rio said it was a “game time decision” to not play Taylor, so it might have had a depressing effect on the team, thinking all week that Fred was going to play and finding out right beforehand that he wasn’t going to be in the game. Even without Taylor, the Jaguars ran the ball, averaging more than five yards per carry between three other running backs. But they were abysmal in the passing game and converting third downs.

Nobody could catch and Byron Leftwich played his worst game as a professional. He was “a little fuzzy” after recovering his own fumble early in the game and getting pounded on the turf. David Garrard came in the game, but Leftwich returned after getting clearance from the medical staff. And he was awful. Missing wide open receivers and generally looking like anything but a first round pick, he was finally replaced late in the 4th quarter by Garrard. I really didn’t have a problem with that; I actually thought he might do it a bit earlier in the game. I wouldn’t read too much into it, other than Del Rio grasping at straws looking for something, anything to get his team going.

There still is a scenario for the Jaguars to get into the playoffs, but it involves several other teams losing and it’s unlikely. A win in Oakland would finish the Jaguars season with a winning record at 9-7. That in itself should be enough motivation.