The Jacksonville Jaguars were supposed to be better than 2-2 after the first quarter of the season, but don't count Jaguars owner Shad Khan as worried.
Speaking with Brent Martineau of ActionSportsJax before Sunday's 23-7 win over the Atlanta Falcons in London, Khan said that he is hoping the Jaguars do what they did last year: finish strong.
"Well, you want to start strong, but you want to finish strong," Khan said. "And I think last year was a good example. I think we were, you know, obviously disappointed with how we started, but we finished well. So I am hoping, you know, that is exactly what we are going to see, we're going to finish strong."
The Jaguars started 3-7 last year before ripping off wins in six of their last seven games, clinching an AFC South title and earning a trip to the playoffs. After knocking off the Los Angeles Chargers in the Wild Card, the Jaguars fell to the eventual Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs in the divisional round.
The Jaguars had all the confidence in the world entering 2023 as a result of this hot end to the previous season. But after a strong showing in Week 1, the Jaguars' offense struggled in back-to-back home losses vs. the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans, the latter of whom blew the Jaguars out in a 37-17 loss.
London will serve as a chance for the Jaguars to get back on track. Beating the Falcons was the first step of that; now, they will have to do it again next week vs. the Buffalo Bills.
"I think this trip hit us at the right time. I think we needed to get away," Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said on Sunday.
"Kind of brings you together a little bit, where we're in the hotel together, we're eating meals together, we're in meetings together, practice, so it's a bonding type experience to kind of reunite with everybody, and that's what you need sometimes. We've got everybody here organizationally, and excited for these next seven days."
More must-reads: