Not many things have gone right for the Jacksonville Jaguars so far in December.
The team has repeatedly shot itself in the foot over its three-game losing streak and injuries have popped up all over the roster. That has included receivers Christian Kirk and Zay Jones both going down, and more importantly, quarterback Trevor Lawrence shook off a high ankle sprain only to land in the concussion protocol.
It’d be understandable if there was a bit of doom and gloom in the Jaguars locker room. So Doug Pederson says he and the rest of the coaching staff have to combat that with positivity.
“We’re still in first place, I think fourth in the AFC,” Pederson said Monday. “We’ve got a chance to accomplish a goal that we set out to do, that’s to win the AFC South. Obviously, we’re making it hard on ourselves but we have to stay focused on that.
“I think so much sometimes we focus on the negative all the time and not the positive. We’ve got to find the good too and fill our player’s heads with positive this time of year. We feel like we’re still a good football team, we’ve played like it at times.”
Prior to their three-game slide in December, the Jaguars seven of their eight games in October and November. That stretch included wins over each of their AFC South rivals, which has all but guaranteed they’ll have the division tiebreaker over any opponent at the end of the year.
Still, that probably won’t matter much if the Jaguars don’t start winning games soon.
“We can’t begin to panic, begin to press,” Pederson said. “We got to continue to play, practice hard, and make a conscious effort to correct things we can.
“It’s hard to fill myself with positive energy because you lose a game. You lose it in a fashion we’ve lost these last three. That’s the disheartening thing. Yeah, my job is to point out the bad, but I think I have to flip it around too at the end of the message, it has to be positive. This is what is ahead of us, our goals are still in front of us. Let’s continue to work hard, let’s support each other, let’s lift each other up, let’s stick together.”
Statistically, the Jaguars have the second easiest remaining schedule with games against the 7-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 2-12 Carolina Panthers, and 5-9 Tennessee Titans. If they win even two of those, the New York Times calculates the Jaguars will have at least an 89 percent chance of making the playoffs.
The margin for error is gone for the Jaguars, but the sky also isn’t falling — at least that’s what Pederson is telling his team.
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