No Excuses for Jaguars in Loss to Bengals

The Jaguars nearly won the game, falling just short, 31-27. The game shouldn't have been close, though. If Jacksonville capitalized on all the advantages that ended up leaning in its favor, it should have walked away with another comfortable win and moved to 2-0.

Bengals star quarterback Joe Burrow exited this game in the first quarter. The Jaguars' offense generated 400 total yards, including an encouraging 5.1 yards per carry. The defense forced three turnovers on backup quarterback Jake Browning. It still wasn't enough.

Jaguars have no one to blame but themselves

There were many intriguing storylines stemming from the Jacksonville Jaguars' Week 2 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. The main focus for this team should be the fact that they gave this game away, rather than their opponent winning it. There's plenty of blame to go around in Jacksonville.

Quarterback Trevor Lawrence dished out two early interceptions. Brian Thomas Jr. had multiple drops again and looked absolutely terrified anytime he was targeted in between the numbers.

Many fans will want to blame the refs, who overturned two potential defensive touchdowns for the Jaguars on questionable calls and threw a highly controversial flag for defensive pass interference on Travis Hunter Jr. that gave the Bengals an automatic first down on a 4th-and-5 incompletion. That wound up extending Cincinnati's drive that won them the game.

Losing to Jake Browning is unacceptable

Jacksonville media even gave Jaguars Head Coach Liam Coen an out in his postgame interview. One member asked him if Jake Browning unexpectedly coming in for Joe Burrow after his turf toe injury shook up Jacksonville's game plan:

"The last time we gave him a one-on-one was on a touchdown, and that was something that we looked at on that play to make him beat us on his own. We don’t need to go after him right now. Let’s make him go play quarterback and beat us, and I think we did that. Shoot, our defense gave us the ball back in their territory to go win the game, and we don’t get points. That’s on us as on offense, not on the defense."

"Ja’Marr (Chase) got his (stats) — we knew that was going to occur — but I thought our defense played their tails off. I thought Campy (defensive coordinator Anthony Campanile) called a good game. I thought our staff did a great job getting them prepared. They’re going to get some of those. They’ve got really good players on offense. You know, that No. 1 (Chase) is the one that sticks out. We shouldn’t have given him a one-on-one, but after that, we didn’t and played really well.”

This team isn't making excuses for itself. Liam Coen wouldn't have it. The fans shouldn't either. If the Jaguars are to be real contenders anytime soon, they have to win games like this one — bar none.