Jacksonville Jaguars’ Doug Marrone: Losing rips something from my soul
Sunday’s 24-20 loss at Green Bay was the Jaguars’ eighth in a row since upsetting Indianapolis in the season opener, and it might have been the most frustrating because the Jaguars did some of the things that heavy underdogs have to do to pull an upset: force turnovers and make a big play on special teams.
“Every time you play and lose, for me, I’m not going to talk about anybody else, there’s something that’s in my soul that just gets f—ing ripped out,” Marrone said. “So, that’s how I feel. So it doesn’t matter if it’s this game or the other seven before it, and it’s something that you can’t replace [in his soul].
“At least that’s how I feel.”
The Jaguars have lost 19 of their past 28 games after a 3-1 start to the 2018 season, and only two of their nine victories in that span have come against teams that finished the season with winning record (that would move to three if Indianapolis wins three more games this season).
Since the Jaguars’ surprising run to the 2017 AFC Championship Game in Marrone’s first season the Jaguars are 12-29. Sixteen of those losses have been by double digits. Which is what made Sunday’s loss to the Packers even more frustrating.
Sidney Jones picked off Aaron Rodgers once, CJ Henderson forced a fumble that Myles Jack recovered and Keelan Cole Sr. returned a punt for a touchdown. The two turnovers led to 10 points and the Jaguars also ran for 109 yards. But the Jaguars turned the ball over on downs with 1:01 to play and tied the second-longest losing streak in franchise history in a single season.
“All I know is that we’re putting everything in this thing. We’re fighting our butts off,” Marrone said. “We’re doing everything we possibly can. We’re coming up short. It’s hard. I’m not going to lie. It’s hard.
“And I just want to do the best job I can for these coaches and players to keep them going so they can continue to get better. … I just sit here and when people ask me about when you lose and about trying to find the positives and all that other stuff I just think like if anyone reads that or a quote by me or anything like that, I don’t know. For some reason I just don’t want to go there, so I apologize for that. And maybe it’s hard for me after a game to really try to kind of say where everyone’s going or not.
“I’ve been in this thing a long time and I love this game, but I meant when I said when asked that question, a lot of times people are going to go ahead and the game’s over and life moves on. Well it doesn’t move on for us. It sits there. It is what it is.”