There are some subtle changes to the bye week for the Jaguars players although Gus Bradley wouldn’t outline them specifically. He did say he didn’t “want guys to go home and run hill sprints with their personal trainers” but outside of that, stay out of trouble, clear your mind and be ready for the second half of the season when they come back.

Bradley’s look at the Buffalo win gave him a chance to assess where the Jaguars are seven games into his third season.

“Coming off of this game that we just had, a lot of good things, a lot of things that we need to improve on,” he said at his final press conference of the week. “I think we really need to focus on those areas and attack them like we’ve done some of the other things, try to be ahead of the curve on some of the things coming out of the bye.”

Bradley got specific about certain situations, saying that they won’t be afraid to bring in some kickers if Jason Myers seems to be struggling. And he said the cornerback position that’s been up for grabs between Davon House and Dwayne Gratz remains so. Gratz got the start against Buffalo but House saw plenty of action. Bradley says he wants Gratz to take better advantage of opportunities.

“I think he’s a good technician. I want to challenge him more to be more of a playmaker when there is opportunities. Not guess and go ball-hawking, but when the opportunity presents itself, take advantage of it. I think that’s a step that he needs to take.”

I asked Gus after the game in London if the package on the goal line with Tyson Alualu at fullback only included Toby Gerhart at tailback. He said it did, but admitted that TJ Yeldon “makes people miss” and might be an option there in the future.

“If you look at analytics it probably says kick the field goal at that time.. It was a coach’s choice and it was a strong to go for it. I felt strongly for this reason: I feel like we came out of the locker room and we had a long drive. It was 13 plays. We were ahead by quite a few. It was more of a message to this team, let’s finish. Let’s finish right now, let’s put this in and let’s find a way. And it didn’t work out that way.”

He’s right. If they kick the field goal there, they’re up by three scores. But Gus stuck by his conviction thinking his defense could handle it if Buffalo bot the ball back on the one. But it was a huge momentum swing that the Jaguars took over a quarter to stop. That might have been the most surprising thing and perhaps a signal that the young players on the Jaguars are starting to mature and develop as expected. They stopped the momentum of the Bills and created some of their own.

“It was outstanding to stop momentum and switch it in your corner after the number of three and outs,” Bradley explained. “You talk about uncomfortable, keep your spirit and great growth, its classic illustration right there.”

It might have been most important for a young team to have a positive vibe coming home from London and going into a bye week. Gus likes to talk about the “fits” and “how things look” when reviewing a game. A lot of the Buffalo game had the right look and in the end, a victory on the scoreboard.

Perhaps as a lesson to his team he couldn’t have drawn it up any better.

“To have it all come together in that situation was cool. There was poise, there was grit, there was resolve and all the things that we talk about day after day they used in that situation. They felt it and it was cool.”

Of all the things Jaguars Coach Gus Bradley has said in the last few weeks about the Jaguars performance and lack of success, perhaps the most insightful has been about the “stage” the Jaguars are in at this point in their development. Bradley points at the double-digit losses in 2013 and 2014 and how the team has grown since then. Getting into one-possession games in the fourth quarter is what the NFL is all about. A one score game can change with the next possession: If the team behind scores, they grab the momentum. If the team leading scores, the game is basically over.

That’s why Sunday’s win in London could be considered a step in the right direction for the Jaguars. Having built a big lead in the first half, they fell apart in the third quarter but regained the lead late and held on for victory.

“There’s a lot to be said about this game,” Bradley said, his voice hoarse from his in-game exhortations.

“We’ve got to go back and look at some things. To have a lead like we did and not complete it like we wanted to, but with that being said, I think there’s a lot of good things about our team.”

For a few weeks, Gus has talked about “the grit” that’s necessary to get past those bad situations in games. Against the Bills, he said the team had it. “The grit that we’ve been talking about, the turnovers on defense, the pressure on the quarterback, the offense coming through. In all three phases there’s work to be done but all three phases came through for us in some way or some fashion. I thought it was an awesome environment, great opportunity for our players.”

After blowing a 27-3 lead, the Jaguars scored late to win 34-31. It doesn’t happen without the development of quarterback Blake Bortles as a second-year player.

“I thought he showed tremendous poise. I thought the whole team did offensively, but he did, “Bradley explained. “He made some plays. I thought Allen Robinson came up big in that series, too, Allen Hurns, so just showed great poise.”

There’s been a lot of talk about validation for the Jaguars, getting a win after all of the work put in without anything to show for it.

“It really is, but that’s what we’ve seen in this team. We’ve seen it all year where they’ve come back and fought back, but it never showed the results that we had hoped.”

It was a wide swing of emotions in this game, from confused, to elated to shock to jubilation all in four quarters. But Bradley says there was never any despair. He believes his team believes.

“They might have said, let’s go, man, we can get this thing done. But when you hear them talking like that, just regroup and let’s go. We’ve still got time. That was more the conversation.”

After the nearly nine hour plane ride home, the Jaguars had Monday off with Gus Bradley and the payers scheduled to speak on Tuesday. They’ll have had a chance to look at video of the game and tell us what they though about four shots at the goal line without a TD and other failures as well as the success they had at the beginning and the end of the game. Since it’s the bye week, the players are required to have four days off, so they’ll practice Wednesday and return to work the beginning of next week.

In a wide ranging interview with the Jacksonville media Saturday morning in London, Jaguars Owner Shad Khan addressed the Jaguars record, the future of Head Coach Gus Bradley and General Manager Dave Caldwell, playing more games overseas and the practice facility/Shipyards project among a variety of other topics.

“Frankly, it’s never crossed my mind,” Khan said when asked about getting rid of Bradley and Caldwell during the season. Although he’s disappointed as any fan would be of the Jaguars 1-5 record, he’s not making a change anytime soon.

“It’s the only sane and proper thing to do,” Shad added about keeping Gus and Dave through the season.

Would he then make a change?

“There are 10 games left. Like any fan, I want to see us win. I think we deserve it. No one is more disappointed in our record than Gus and Dave,” Khan explained. “There are a variety of factors to making that kind of decision. ‘Where are we compared to two years ago? What’s in our future? Are we headed in the right direction?’ We’ll consider all of those things before we decide if we’re going to make a mid-course correction.”

I did get the sense that while Shad was disappointed in what’s happened, especially in the last three weeks, he seems committed to what Bradley and Caldwell are doing and appears to be patient enough to give them through the 2016 season to prove themselves. (Provided the Jaguars don’t get blown out for the rest of the year.) He didn’t blanche at the question of benching Davon House, even though he paid $6 million for him in the off-season as a free agent.

“I think it shows that you shouldn’t be playing players because of what you’re paying them. They should earn their position. There are a lot of reasons for encouragement. The way you measure a football team is wins and losses. We should have won the last three games. Everybody feels we should have won. It’s very important we don’t become a victim of status quo.”

“There’s light years difference between three and three and one and five,” Shad said, his expression clearly showing him stepping between his role as the Jaguars Owner and being a Jaguars fan. “But life, like football, is not a straight line going up. We want to see where the journey’s been over the last three years.”

It’s clear that the Jaguars organization has benefited from playing a game in London and today Khan reiterated that he’s thrilled to extend the deal to play at Wembley Stadium. He added that the Jaguars are committed to London and won’t be interested in playing a game elsewhere. The NFL owners have approved games in Germany and in Mexico and he’s all for that, just not for the Jaguars. He thinks it’s good for the NFL but won’t include his team.

“It’s not on the Jaguars radar,” he said.

That doesn’t exclude another game in London though, as the visiting team. The Jaguars won’t take another home game away from the city, but Khan said he was open to the possibility of playing a second game here, back-to-back with their home game. While it doesn’t seem imminent, it does seem like a possibility.

“There might be a time where that would make sense. We have the NFL’s support. We’re in conversations.”

Being an entity on the sports landscape in London is a priority for the Jaguars and for Shad Khan. He might have wanted a longer deal, perhaps through 2030, to play games in London, but for now, the deal is through 2020 with an option for another five years.

“I’m delighted to see it for 5 years and perhaps another five years. Jacksonville has benefited greatly for another five years. Nothing happens without economic growth.”

“Money is the resource that allows us to be competitive,” he explained when asked about the revenue stream that comes from the London connection. “We should use the power of football for the common good. That’s the ultimate goal. To create jobs for Jacksonville.”

“I think there’s been a lot of personal growth in Jacksonville,” Khan said regarding the way business is being done in North Florida and the Jaguars connection to that.

Everybody remembers Shad’s comment about the lack of “mojo” in Jacksonville so I asked him if there was more mojo at home than in the past.

“You have to create mojo,” he said, pointing to the number of young people who are creating opportunities at home. Khan has spent most of his week working with London civic leaders and Jacksonville’s representatives here trying to create a synergy between the two cities.

“I’d like to see direct flights from Jacksonville to Europe,” he mentioned as one idea of how the city can benefit from the game in London. “That helps put Jacksonville on the map. There’s a missing connection point between Atlanta and Orlando for overseas flights and I think Jacksonville can fill that void. That could really help.”

That’s a pretty good example of the big thinking Shad Khan brings to the table when it comes to driving the economic connection of the Jaguars, Jacksonville and London.

Sitting at Khan’s side, Jaguars President Mark Lamping echoed how well the deal has worked. About 15% of the Jaguars revenue is derived from sponsorship opportunities in London. In fact, the Jaguars have assigned one of their Vice Presidents, Hussein Naqi, permanently to London to continue to explore the revenue possibilities and the possible connection between the Jaguars and Khan’s soccer team, Fulham FC.

“Absolutely,” Lamping explained when asked about creating a bigger connection between the two cities and the two clubs. “Visit Florida is the primary sponsor on the front of the jersey at Fulham. That deal was done in Jacksonville, not London.”

With only eight wins over the last three seasons, Lamping said the appetite for a connection to the Jaguars either in London or in Jacksonville hasn’t been dampened because of the record. “Businesses are looking at it as more of an opportunity rather than what the record is on the field.”

And how have the fans reacted to that?

“We have really smart football fans,” Lamping said. “They’ve gone through a lot of speculation about their football team over the years. They’ve clearly outperformed the team.”

Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bulls will be the first live, streamed NFL contest worldwide. (Although it will be televised in a traditional manner in Jacksonville and Buffalo). Yahoo announced that the sponsorship of the game has sold out, not surprising to Khan.

“I see it as an historic moment. It’ll be the answer to a lot of trivia contests 20 years from now. It’s the first. Other sports are finding the value in being able to go directly from the provider to the consumer.”

As the Jaguars owner, Khan seems committed to Jacksonville, saying the team will start to build, in a small partnership with the city, a full practice facility on the south side of the stadium starting right after this season. It will include an indoor practice field and will have a “destination” quality to it as well. While it’s not tied to the Shipyards project, he said it will be “architecturally integrated with bridges and the like” when both projects are completed.

Environmental issues remain with the Shipyards that the city, the state and even the federal government are working through. That’s why Khan said the practice facility would come first.

“That will give the city a chance to look at what we’re doing. We’d like to engage with the city” (with the Shipyards project), perhaps sending a message to Mayor Lenny Curry and the City Council.

At the upcoming NFL Owners meeting, Khan doesn’t expect any decisions on playoff expansion or putting a team in LA. But he expects those subjects to be discussed.

“The stars will align,” he said when asked if either of those will happen.

Will the NFL ever put a team in London? A whole division in Europe?

“I know there’s been a huge amount of speculation but I don’t know if the fans here have the appetite for it. There will be more games here. Team’s playing home games, that’s for sure.”

It’s certainly no surprise that the Jaguars have extended their agreement to play one home game a year in London through 2020. It’s only a bit surprising that the new deal is not for longer.

“Our interest in extending our agreement to play a home game each season in London is nothing new. So, we’re very happy to make it official today,” said Jaguars Owner Shad Khan from London.

Khan was interested in extending the deal through 2030 but instead; it’s an arrangement to continue to play at Wembley Stadium through 2020 with an opportunity to extend the deal into 2025. Although Khan has also expressed an interest in playing a game in Europe as well, for now, just one game a year overseas will be on the schedule for the Jaguars. Perhaps if the team was winning there’d be more thought of expanding the footprint onto the Continent but for now, the focus is to get a winning team on the field.

NFL clubs recently approved a resolution to continue playing international regular-season games through the 2025 season and expanded the league’s ability to play those games in countries and territories beyond the UK. Germany and Mexico City are the two places the league would like to play next. If he can figure out how to make it work and not impact the revenue or the product on the field, Khan would like to have the Jaguars in the game in Germany. It’s possible the Jaguars could play a “road” game there either the week before or after the London game. But that’s just a thought for now.

A quick look at the Jaguars revenue makes it clear that London is a key component in the Jaguars profitability. Khan has said many times that a “sustainable franchise in Jacksonville is only helped by playing a game in London.”

Today he reiterated that.

“This is great news for the Jaguars and the stability of the team in Jacksonville, which has come to embrace London as our home away from home.”

An important part of the deal for Khan was to continue to play at Wembley. Earlier this year, the NFL and the English Premier League’s Tottenham Hotspur franchise announced an agreement to play a minimum of two games per year during a 10-year partnership at Tottenham’s new state-of-the-art stadium, due to open in the summer of 2018.

That means the league will have two different stadiums hosting games in London. The NFL’s Vice President of International Mark Waller said today at the announcement, “We are very appreciative of the Jaguars extending their commitment to the UK market, which emphasizes the club’s and league’s strong ambition to continue to grow the fan base for NFL football beyond the borders of the United States.”

When you’re in London for the game, you see a lot of Jaguars gear on fans and for sale. While Americans who have made the trip wear some of it, a surprising number of International NFL fans have embraced the Jaguars as “their team.”

In the UK, FA Group Operations Director JULIE HARRINGTON said today, “We are proud that the NFL identified Wembley Stadium 10 years ago to serve as the focal point of its vision for international expansion. Since then, we have forged a very special partnership with Mr. Khan and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Today’s news and this deal shows their trust and long-term belief in our venue.”

Just about every losing team in the NFL talks about ignoring “the noise.” “The noise,” by the way, is what you and I have to say about how the team is playing. After their 31-20 loss at home to the lowly Texans, there has been plenty of noise from outside the stadium about how to fix it. Fire Gus. Cut some players. Puts guys on the bench. Get rid of Dave Caldwell.

They hear it, but they’re trying to ignore it.

“I always want to make sure that we play hard in front of our fans and we give them a good product,” Bradley said at his Monday’s press conference. “What goes on in that locker room and how we handle it in the team meetings and how we talk, there’s not a lot of conversations about ‘here’s what they’re saying outside.’ ”

That’s not unique. Patriots Head Coach has a sign on the door to the Patriots practice facility that says, “Ignore The Noise.” At least Bradley admitted what would put an end to all of that talk.

“They will be happy if we get this right so we put all of our attention into that.”

For the second week in a row, the Jaguars had a lead and lost it and for the third straight week chances to win the game were at hand, and lost. “Very challenging time that we’re going through right now. We’re in that stage where we have to find a way to pull these off,” Bradley explained as part of the growing process. “I believe in the guys in the locker room, I think that’s important that they believe in each other and they do.”

Were expectations too high going into the third year? Bradley declared the team built and immediately everybody thought that meant they’d be competitive and win games. In comparison to 2013 and 2014, there’s no question the Jaguars are better and more competitive. It’s the winning games that’s not happening. Bradley spoke today as if he expected this all along. “Going through this, you knew this was going to be challenging: to teach this team what it takes to get through this and do enough right things to earn that victory. So that’s where we’re at.”

Fans appear particularly dismayed because the Jaguars are collapsing at the exact wrong time and finding a way to lose late in the game.

“That’s the part where I think we have to teach our team, when you have the lead, now you even go more if there is such a thing,” Bradley said, addressing losing leads late in games. ”

“I think instead of dipping your toe in the water, you get immersed in it. And that’s what we need to learn.”

Although practices are closed to team coaches and officials only, apparently the team looks different behind closed gates than it does on Sunday afternoon in stadiums. Bradley wants to see the team that practices show up on Sunday. It appears the Jaguars are now a team full of Blaine Gabberts.

“I want to make sure what we see in practice is what we get in the game. I think that that same competitive spirit transfers over. What we’re seeing now in some guys is they compete 90 percent of the time; I’m just talking about a few. Ninety percent of the time, and then they have a let-up or they lose their focus for a period of time.”

When he said that, a lot of eyebrows were raised. Being able to see that on video when a guy isn’t giving 100% on a particular play means he’s headed to the bench, soon. Gus was particularly critical, without naming him, of Davon House and how he performed late in the game. De’Andre Hopkins was held pretty much in check for most of the game but he torched House on three consecutive drives in the 4th quarter to put the game out of reach.

“You can’t do that, you can’t do that in the NFL. In the secondary, if a guy gets behind you, there’s no excuse. If you lose your eyes, there’s no excuse. You have to be able to do those things, that’s part of being in the league. It’s playing that complete game.”

So they’ll evaluate performance this week and decide who gets to play in London against Buffalo and who’s sitting. Making one mistake can be written off. But the same mistakes over and over, Bradley calls that a lack of accountability.

“But if it’s a repeated action, then what is accountability? If they repeat it and they continue to play and go out there and play, what takes place?” he noted when talking about figuring out who will play and who won’t. “That’s the decisions we have to make this week.”

And how will they make those decisions? Bradley gave us some insight into how he’ll approach the situation. The short answer is: different ways for different players.

“To me, accountability is changing someone’s behavior. If putting the hammer changes someone’s behavior, then put the hammer down. That’s why you have to understand your players and know what they’re all about. If I told Poz I was going to fine him five dollars, he would straighten up. If I told someone else I would fine him five dollars, they may not. Everybody is different, so you have to find out what they value and what’s important to them and hopefully it’s this team. I’m sure it is.”

Hope he’s right.

It’s not hard to see that the Jaguars could have won three of the four games they’ve lost this year if they had only gotten out of their own way. But you are what you earn in the NFL and the Jaguars have earned one win and four losses. That has lead to a lot of soul searching this week at the stadium about the whole process. I’ve said all along that Head Coach Gus Bradley’s coaching style is one huge experiment, trying to empower the players instead of the coaches standing over them with demands. Bradley confirmed that this week in not so many words with some of the things he said regarding a change in his approach.

“Whenever things don’t go the way you had hoped you always search inside to try to find out what can I do to help be a part of this?” Bradley said at the end of the week. “Rather than say he’s wrong, he’s wrong or he’s wrong you say what can I do? How can I be a bigger part of this?”

If you’ve ever been on a team at any level, you know that’s a whole different approach to getting things done from a head coach. Usually they have their ideas and they put them in place. You can either get on board or ship out. For Bradley though, he’s looking for answers not just among his team and his staff, but within himself as well

“A hundred things run through your mind saying ‘maybe we should do this, let’s take a look at that, let’s take a look at this,’ and your mind is constantly racing trying to find out what works and that’s the competitive side in you.”

Does that mean he’s not sure about what he’s doing? Hardly. Bradley believes in the process and how to get there. He’s said often that his conviction has been tested but he’s staying on course. There’s a philosophy of the “servant leader” that Bradley adheres to as a coach. He’ll give you the tools to get better: it’s your job to do it.

“I don’t want them to rely on me or their coaches for juice or to always be corrected,” he explained. “They’ve got to self-correct. That’s what happens in a game. There’s no one out there in a game and they’ve got to learn to do it on their own.”

And while having a young team is no excuse, it is the young players who are having the most difficult time self-correcting and staying focused play after play, game after game, week after week.

If you compare scores in the last three years you could make the case that the Jaguars are light years ahead of where they were in 2013 and last year. But it’s no solace to continue to see losses mount when the expectations were so much higher.

When asked about the process, Bradley points to the progress made by Blake Bortles, the defensive backfield, the offensive line and other places. But when I asked him if part of the process of improving the pieces and becoming a better team is actually finishing and winning games, he agreed.

“That’s the next step, to be consistent and precise and finish,” he told me. He also said this week was a big step forward in that process.

“They’ve had good weeks but I just felt like the whole emphasis on putting these things together. I felt more accountability. I’m not saying from me, I think it’s more powerful if you feel from player to player,” as he reiterated where he hopes to put the team permanently.

“We’re learning a lot of lessons about our team. Each week there’s going to be new things that come up, that’s just how the NFL is. That’s how it goes but we’re trying to minimize these things as much as possible. I think how they’re holding each other accountable is a big part of it.”

As they get healthy and mature, the Jaguars appear on the verge of stepping out of the cellar of the league and becoming very competitive. But they have to take that step. There are hundreds of teams that get to this point and never take that step. If they do, they have the talent to be good for a long time. If they don’t, the players will have to adjust to a new message in the future and the fans will continue to wait.

After flashing a bit of anger on Sunday after the loss to Tampa Bay and still being disappointed after watching the video on Monday, Gus Bradley was back on the field with his team Wednesday. Bradley told us Monday that he was going to try and be more of a “presence” on the field with the whole team, so they would know he was there and recognize his voice and interest. He said he stepped it up during practice but wasn’t sure if it had an instant impact.

“I don’t know. I think that was more at the point in time I was a little emotional. We want to keep the things that are building, we want to ensure they keep building and then these things we need to correct let’s act on them and get it done.”

Being consistent is what most NFL coaches strive for, so Bradley wanted to keep the same routine, but ramp up the results.

“It breeds credibility to players but at the same time, act,” the Head Coach said about not being all over the map when it comes to what he’s like in practice. “Talked to them about being pros, going out there and really playing at a high level at practice. Like I said, I thought that was accomplished.”

In a bit of a surprise, Blake Bortles practiced on Wednesday. It was reported that he had a mild shoulder contusion and might not practice early in the week but he reported he felt better Wednesday morning and went through the normal practice with the team. Sen’Derrick Marks and Denard Robinson also participated in practice and have a chance to play Sunday.

“Very pleased with Blake Bortles how he practiced, going through what he’s going through,” Bradley noted at his normal Wednesday press conference. “Sen’Derrick Marks and D-Rob. All three I thought performed pretty well today and we’ll wait and see how it goes.”

Bradley reiterated that the Jaguars didn’t tackle well on Sunday either on defense or on special teams. He did reveal that they’re looking for a 4.8 second hang time average from Bryan Anger on punts and a few were under that, giving the returner a chance to react. By the way, 4.8 seconds is a long time and that’s what the time is on a 60-yard punt. But the Jaguars want that number even on shorter ones.

There was a new face on the practice field working with kicker Jason Myers. Apparently Myers was looking for a “tune up” every now and then and the Jaguars said he could bring his own kicking coach to practice to see how it worked out.

“Dave (Caldwell, Jaguars GM) and I talked about that we’re out there coaching these guys and he feels really good about his kicking coach that he’s had in, so we’re looking at bringing him in every four weeks or so just to fine-tune some things.”

Switching from special teams to starting running back is what the Jaguars have asked of Toby Gerhart this year. This week Gerhart might get the start because of injuries to Robinson and T.J. Yeldon, who didn’t practice today.

Bradley sees Gerhart as finding a groove. “I think he’s getting used to that and also transferring over so it was a little bit of a time period there, an adjustment period. But he practices good and I think this is the time for him to get some reps and he’s been pretty excited.”

“Still painful.”

That’s how Gus Bradley starting talking about his observations of Sunday’s loss to Tampa Bay after looking at the video and having 24 hours to reflect.

Bradley admitted he didn’t know what to say after seeing the multitude of mistakes, including 23 missed tackles in the game.

“You look at it and you go, how can we get this fixed? Sometimes I think the biggest message to our team is personal responsibility.”

That’s been a selling point of Bradley’s head coaching “experiment” as he is trying to empower the players to take the responsibility as well as hold their teammates responsible. He was particularly wounded by the defensive performance and the lack of somebody stepping up and making a play instead of waiting for somebody else to make a tackle.

“No, no. You make the tackle,” Bradley said, his voice still strained from yesterday’s game. “Take personal responsibility for making that tackle, Take personal responsibility, take accountability for it and let’s get these things cleaned up.”

While players make plays, even Bradley wondered if his team was prepared to play against the Bucs. That brings into question the whole coaching philosophy, the coaching staff and Bradley’s role in what’s happening in games and during the week.

Gus admitted his demeanor has to change. “I think I can be stronger on the practice field. If I do that, I think the players need to feel me that when a situation like that occurs, to hear my voice, offensively, defensively and special teams. That’s where I take personal responsibility. I don’t think I’ve been as animated on the field when it comes to those issues. So that part, I think you’ll see that part will change.”

It’s obvious Bradley has confidence in the physical ability of his team and the talent level he and General Manager Dave Caldwell have put together for the 2015 version of the Jaguars. But he’s stumped when it comes to why the players are making mistakes, albeit different players making different ones in each game, and not able to maintain a level of precision and consistency necessary to compete every week in the league.

“You know what, it’s personal responsibility. You’re in the NFL. You’re a player in the NFL. Take care of your business and focus. If you do three good things and you didn’t do it that time, you’re losing focus.”

Does that mean they need to start cutting players? As Tom Coughlin once said in the expansion year, “These are our players.” As in, “Where are we going to find new players right now?” But the Jaguars need to decide whether some of their current players are part of the solution or just part of the problem.

“Yes, you’re right,” Bradley agreed. ” You trust people until they prove unreliable. If they’re unreliable, you have to make changes. I agree 100 percent The NFL is ‘tolerate until you can replace.’ That’s for all of us. That’s the environment that we know that we’re in, the players know that we’re in that environment and the coaches. That’s just a fact of life. The players need to sense that. But we need someone that we can replace them with.”

Why haven’t the Jaguars cut anybody? For now, not one player is standing out as making the same mistakes over and over. It’s a shared responsibility, team-wide. And with a team that stops itself as much as dealing with the opponent, Bradley reiterated their margin for error is small.

“We are not a team that’s going out there and winning 31-7.” Then he corrected himself a bit. “We’re not a team that’s going out there and winning, first of all. You’re playing close games there’s little margin for error.”

Will yelling and screaming and a bigger presence in practice be the solution? Gus isn’t sure. But he is turning up the heat on his players.

“These conversations that we have I want to shock them, I’m going to hold them accountable for that. I’m going to watch them closely and make sure they take it upon themselves. This group is special, they take personal responsibility. If they’re not we’ll ensure that they do and we’ll hold them accountable for it.” Which maybe means roster changes are imminent.

And being a defensive coach, Bradley wants a team with his trademark on it to be tough on defense, stopping the run and pressuring the quarterback. Against the Bucs, the Jaguars did neither.

“This game was more disappointing because this is our strength. We are built to stop the run and we didn’t. That’s what’s disappointing more so than anything else.”

Much of the discussion on the drive to Tampa this weekend centered on the good and bad teams in the NFL and where the Jaguars fit in that discussion. We came up with New England, Green Bay, Atlanta (sort of), Denver and maybe a couple of others as possible good teams. Both the Jaguars and the Buccaneers qualified among the bad teams in the league along with the Raiders and a few others. So that left about 22 average teams in the league.

But if the Jaguars play at their best, can they win? You’d like to think so but after a week of supposed “great practices” the Jaguars looked anything but even close to good against the lowly Bucs.

After deferring to the second half the Jaguars defense allowed the Bucs to march down the field in the opening drive, giving up a field goal and trailing 3-0. I never worry too much about opening drives because they’re on a script and each team is figuring out what the other is doing. But in this case, Jameis Winston had way too much time and Doug Martin was chewing up yardage on the ground at will.

After a couple of three and outs by both teams, the Jaguars put together a nice drive. Blending the run by T.J. Yeldon and Blake Bortles passing, the Jaguars scored a TD, Bortles to Hurns and a 7-3 lead.

But the Bucs kept chewing up yardage and were gaining confidence for a team that had lost 10 straight at home. They kicked a field goal to pull within 7-6.

A big 61-yard punt by Bryan Anger was negated by a 58-yard runback. The Bucs scored after some horrendous tackling by the Jaguars, Martin taking a quick pass from Winston for 10 yards and a13-7 lead.

That’s when Blake Bortles threw an interception, trying to force the ball on the outside to Marcedes Lewis giving Tampa Bay good field position. He had receivers open all over the field, but never saw one of them. In fact, the Bucs were scrambling on defense, knowing at the snap of the ball they didn’t have the formation covered.

It didn’t take long for the Bucs to capitalize, Martin scoring on a 1 yard run to make it 20-7. Do the Jaguars have enough offense to overcome a team that scores 20 points?

At least they got the two-minute drill right. It’s a mystery why they don’t run more “up tempo” more often, considering how comfortable Bortles looks in that situation. They marched right down the field and scored on a 13-yard TD pass from Bortles to Allen Robinson, 20-14 Bucs at the half.

Getting the ball to open the second half, the Jaguars had a nice drive going but it stalled near the red zone with Bortles getting locked in on one receiver again. A Jason Myers field goal made it 20-17.

A good defensive stand gave the Jaguars the ball at their own 40. Again a little success bred some confidence for the Jaguars and they went 61 yards in 6 plays, a TD pass from Bortles (his third) to Yeldon gave the Jaguars a 24-20 lead. The pass was back across the field and had interception written all over it but Yeldon was wide open and held onto it for six.

After a Bucs FG made it 24-23, the Jaguars gave the ball to the rookie Corey Grant at the ten where he promptly fumbled and gave up a score for a 31-24 lead after the 2-point conversion. That’s where the Jaguars can’t get out of their own way. Leading, holding the other team to a field goal and still holding onto a one-point lead, it’s imperative not to do something silly that gets you beat. But they seem to find a way. And what’s Grant doing in the game at that point anyway?

After not moving it on their next possession, the Jaguars special teams and tackling let them down again, giving the Bucs a short field and they took advantage. Martin scored again to give Tampa Bay a two-touchdown lead, 38-24.

Not much happened for the next six minutes as the Bucs just ground the clock out with one first down after another until the Jaguars scored on a 59 yard catch and run by Allen Hurns and a 5 yard TD catch by Allen Robinson. It was Bortles 4th TD throw of the day.

But the Bucs recovered the ensuing onside kick and the final score was 38-31, Tampa Bay.

For the second week in a row, it’s a particularly disappointing loss since the Jaguars had the momentum and the lead but couldn’t hold it. It’s their 12th straight road loss and snaps a 10 game home losing streak for the Bucs.

I’ve asked a lot this week if the Jaguars were good enough to win if they play their best.

We still don’t know.

It’s a short trip but a regular week for the Jaguars as they prepare for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. Coming off the tough loss to Indy where Head Coach Gus Bradley said, “We missed it,” the team seemed to bounce back quickly.

“A very crisp practice today. I really liked this week as far as the attention to detail and those concepts,” Bradley said after Friday’s walk-thru.

Talking with Gus on his television show, he admitted he wasn’t sure how the team would respond but that by Wednesday’s practice they were looking forward to the game against the Bucs. That’s what they’ll need for their third straight road game where the opponent thinks it’s an easy chance for a “W.”

Despite the injuries and the uncertainty at several positions, Bradley likes how the team has taken to the idea of going on the road this week and coming home with a win.

“The ownership of it, the ownership of our mentality going into the game, the ownership of the game plan going into the game,” is what Bradley said he liked about this week’s preparation. “So three really good days of practice, so we’ll see how it pans out.”

Since Tampa is just over a three-hour drive, several thousand Jaguars fans are making the trip. Some groups are even having an organized tailgate on Sunday morning (we’ll have coverage of that on the pregame show on Channel 4).

Bradley is impressed by that. “Yeah it’s unbelievable. We talked about it last night on the show. It’s amazing. I know we mentioned it to our players and it’s unbelievable. I don’t know if words can express it.”

Emotions were still running high Monday at the stadium after the Jaguars watched video of their loss to Indianapolis in overtime. Fans, players, and coaches all seemed to feel the same way: Confused and disappointed.

“It’s a tough game to watch,” Head Coach Gus Bradley admitted in his opening statement during his Monday press conference. “I think we had a great opportunity yesterday with our team and the way we wanted to approach it and go about it. I truly felt we missed it, it got away from us and it’s very disappointing.”

“We missed it,” was a theme running through Bradley’s observation of the game. A chance to win, slipping away through inconsistency and a myriad of other problems. Last year, the Jaguars were the least penalized team in the league. This year is a different story. They’re on pace to give up over 1,300 penalty yards after 13 flags were thrown against them on Sunday.

“There’s self-inflicted wounds that are hurting us badly,” Bradley explained. I look at one drive defensively, (5 penalties for 40 yards on the Colts only TD drive) Good teams consistently don’t have even a series like that so far too many penalties in that situation.”

It is interesting that Bradley uses the phrase “good teams” when he’s outlining how things should go versus how the Jaguars are playing. There are flashes, and perhaps that’s what the realistic expectation should be for a team with a second-year quarterback and with their best players rehabilitating injuries. But even Bradley admitted he was confused after seeing the game a day later at how on one series the Jaguars could be so solid and in the next, clueless.

“Yeah, disappointing because we did miss it (an opportunity). I’m probably a little confused like our fan base is. When you see good plays, when you see big plays, when you see guys taking shots or guys making plays and it feels like it should, and then you don’t see the consistency.”

If “precision” was the word last week, “consistency” was what was lacking against the Colts. Offensively,, Blake Bortles had a strong first half, taking the team to a 13-10 lead going to the break. While it could have been more, it still was a lead. Nonetheless, not getting more points in the first half lead to more inconsistency in the second half, perhaps because they were pressing and eventually the game came down to a kick. Or two.

Bradley saw the same thing we did. “Offensively we moved the ball but the issue is this; in the first half I think we had first and ten on the six, first and ten on the 13, we had first and ten on the 16 and came away with two field goals and a touchdown. We’ve got to score more points than that. Its self-inflicted wounds again; botched snap, not handling it right, penalties, disciplined and staying focused throughout.”

And while social media was flooded with “Bring back Scobee” talk, Bradley reiterated his support for Jason Myers, despite missing two game winning kicks.

“I think when we first signed Jason and we made that decision we knew that there was going to be some waves I think that we were going to have to go through. I like his mentality, we’re very confident in him and he had an unfortunate day yesterday.. We know with a younger kicker like this he’s going to go through some of these situations.”

No team wants the game to come down to a kick, especially one from around 50 yards. The Jaguars are no different and there were numerous opportunities lost all over the field “There were mistakes made out there by multiple players.” Bradley agreed. “They took their turns, and his is more visual. Everybody saw it. I think we just have faith in his demeanor.”

“I think it’s a work in progress, I do. To say that it’s like a well-oiled machine where we’ve been together for seven or eight years, no it’s not that but I’m seeing good signs. But also to be real I’ve seen some signs that are disappointing, It has the capabilities, we’re just not seeing it consistently.”

So again this week, Bradley will ask his team to bounce back, but in a very different way than after the loss to New England.

“Both are tough. It’s tough, it really is. I think games like these, they really challenge your conviction and how you want to approach it. I do know that it might be where everybody wants us to become negative, but I know becoming negative isn’t going to work. Challenging our guys and demanding that we do things right and are disciplined and focused, that’s what we need.”

It’s a quarterback league, no question. So when one of the top quarterbacks in the league might not play, it’s news. In their first three games the Jaguars have gotten all starters: Cam Newton, Ryan Tannehill and Tom Brady. This week Andrew Luck is officially listed as “questionable” but reports are now that he won’t play against the Jaguars today.

Jaguars Head Coach Gus Bradley says they need to be prepared for whoever is taking snaps in Indianapolis.

“Every week you go into it, you know who the backup is and you show some clips of him. This week it might be a little bit more real so I think that you go into it, you prepare for Luck, you know everything that he likes to do, the style and mannerisms,” Bradley explained. But you might spend a little bit more time on Matt Hasselbeck. I think it’s probably more real than a normal week, no one can argue with that, so you have to be prepared for both.”

Another factor in the Colts’ decision to sit Luck today against the Jaguars is the quick turnaround for a Week 5 Thursday night game against the Houston Texans. Luck has not missed a game or snap because of an injury in his four seasons in the NFL.

Hasselbeck, who just turned 40 on September 25, hasn’t started an NFL game since November 4, 2012 when he was with the Titans. He’s thrown 56 passes in the last two seasons. But it’s not as if he lacks experience. Hasselbeck has thrown for nearly 35,000 yards and 203 TD’s in his 17 year career that included leading the Seattle Seahawks to a Super Bowl.

So with a 40-year old quarterback and an inexperienced offensive line, the Colts will be a very different team facing the Jaguars today.

When the Jaguars are on offense, Bradley expects Blake Bortles and company to be thinking about moving the ball downfield quickly.

“I think every week we understand the importance of explosive plays. I think you see us we’re taking more shots, more shots downfield, because of the importance.”

Against the Colts, whether it’s Luck or Hasselbeck, Indy can score points. The Jaguars have to match that. Luck has more turnovers, 28, than any other player in the NFL since the beginning of 2014. If he gives the Jaguars the ball, they have to take advantage of it.

“We all know the scoring opportunities rise with explosive plays within a series, so it’s always important whatever week it is. That’s kind of our mentality,” Bradley explained.