The Jacksonville Jaguars were on the right side of an acclimation discrepancy in Week 5 after spending two weekends in London while the Buffalo Bills arrived just a few days before game day. This week, the opposite is true.
After flying back to Florida following back-to-back wins in England, the Jaguars now have to adjust back to the Eastern Time Zone before a Week 6 game against the Indianapolis Colts. While they’ll have about a week to get their internal clocks back to normal before the 1 p.m. ET kickoff Sunday, Jaguars coach Doug Pederson isn’t taking the challenge lightly.
“The fatigue aspect is real,” Pederson said in a Monday press conference. “It takes a couple of days to get back on the Eastern Standard Time from a time zone that’s actually five hours ahead. It does take a couple of days.
“I’m going to be very mindful of that this week and making sure the guys get plenty of rest during the week but at the same time, getting our work done the rest of the week and preparing for Indy on Sunday. It’s a give and take this week, the players have to understand that, and we still have to get our work in.”
In previous years, the Jaguars and other teams that traveled internationally for a game typically had a bye week on the schedule to aid the adjustment process. But that wasn’t the case last season when the Jaguars returned to win a home game against the Las Vegas Raiders.
On Sunday, Pederson said Jacksonville wasn’t interested in taking a bye after the two-weekend trip to London.
“We’re still so early in the season after five games to take the bye this early,” Pederson said. “It’s a long season, a lot of football left, and so I feel like if you can push your bye towards the middle of the year, it might benefit you. But I’ll do my part to help our team recover this week coming up.”
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