The real reason the Jaguars lost to the Patriots has nothing to do with the refs
The prevailing narrative after the New England Patriots clawed back from a double-digit deficit against the Jacksonville Jaguars to win 24-20 is that the referees gift-wrapped a victory to the defending Super Bowl champions.
Frankly, that’s an easy and lazy narrative that Patriots detractors have clung to for years.
This is the same Patriots organization whose owner drunkenly called out commissioner Roger Goodell on national television this same time last year. This is the same Patriots team whom Goodell spent untold millions of dollars in legal fees against to see Tom Brady serve a four-game suspension. And this is the same Patriots team who donned T-shirts with Goodell dressed as a clown emblazoned on them after winning the Super Bowl last year.
But sure, the referees must be favoring them.
The referees didn’t force Seattle offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell to call a pass play on first-and-goal from the 2-yard line in Super Bowl XLIX. The referees didn’t force Steve Sarkisian to abandon the run with a 28-3 lead in last year’s Super Bowl. The referees didn’t miraculously force a pair of game-winning Adam Vinatieri field goals to between the uprights. The referees didn’t force Andy Reid to exhibit some of the least urgent clock management in Super Bowl history.
And the referees certainly didn’t have anything to do with the Jaguars blowing a lead in Sunday’s AFC championship game.
Just ask Jaguars star cornerback A.J. Bouye. He was certainly frustrated with the 88-yard cumulative discrepancy in penalty yardage, and that’s one thing.
But to blame the referees? Even he said that narrative was wrong.
“But at the end of the day, we can’t put the blame on [the referees]. We didn’t execute good enough. They executed good enough,” Bouye told reporters after the game, per ESPN.
And that’s the cold, hard truth. The Jaguars lost the AFC championship game because they didn’t execute well enough.
Honestly, they didn’t execute much at all after jumping out to an early lead.
The Jaguars inexplicably seemed totally content sitting on a two-possession lead for much of the game.
After the Jaguars took a 14-3 lead over the Patriots, the team snapped the football on 18 first downs the rest of the game. They ran the football on 14 of those first downs.
Those runs were not effective.
In order, the Jaguars gained 1, 2, 4, 2, 1, 3, 0, 2, 14, 2, 1, 1, and -1 yards. That good for a solid 2.4 yards-per-first down, in a blatant attempt to kill the clock. With a four-point lead in the second half, the Jaguars’ drives produced a field goal, a punt, a field goal, a punt, a punt, a punt, and a turnover on downs. Truly riveting and imaginative play calling there.
The other first down “run” was actually a kneel down. With 55 seconds left before halftime, and two timeouts remaining after the Patriots had scored on a touchdown to cut the lead to 14-10.
That’s not playing to win, that’s playing not to lose. And that’s playing not to lose in an almost historic fashion.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, that’s the first time all season that a team has opted to kneel with more than 50 seconds left in a half, let alone 55 seconds and two timeouts.
Compounding all of that was that through three quarters of football, Blake Bortles was outplaying Tom Brady.
There was no discernible reason not to give Bortles the football and let him make plays, other than a complete lack of faith from his coaches.
And yet, despite the questionable coaching, the Jaguars still had a chance to win at the end of the game. It took a miraculous defensive play from the maligned Stephon Gilmore to break up a pass that could’ve easily gone for a touchdown.
Imagine what could’ve been if the Jaguars hadn’t knelt with nearly a minute left, and if they had decided against running Leonard Fournette into a packed box on nearly every first-down snap.
And to make one final point about the officiating, of the six penalties called against the Jaguars, there was really only one truly debatable call. Bouye’s pass interference call late in the first half probably should’ve been a non-whistle. The other penalties were either self-inflicted — such as a drive-killing delay of game coming out of a timeout — or correct calls.
The Myles Jack strip fumble could’ve just as easily been called the other way with Dion Lewis’ knee seemingly hitting the ground as he had a partial grip on the football. It was a 50/50 call that some couldn’t believe went in the Jaguars favor.
And the “hold” that ended the game? Watch it in real-time and it happened in a fraction of a second that would’ve been virtually impossible for a human referee to call.
All told, it’s reductive to pin the Patriots win solely on the zebras.
For three solid quarters, the Jaguars were the better team than the Patriots. Based on their play calling, the Jaguars were the only ones not to realize it.
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