Jaguars’ Marrone sticking with staff despite 3-game skid
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Jacksonville Jaguars coach Doug Marrone is sticking with his staff.
Marrone said Monday he has no plans to make any changes despite a three-game losing streak in which his team has been seemingly outcoached at halftime and clearly overmatched in the third quarter. It’s an obvious trend that could ultimately cost Marrone his job.
But the coach declined to place blame on - or replace - either of his coordinators.
“If it’s going to make our team better and help us win, then I have to do that,” Marrone said. “When you make a decision like that, you’ve got to look at the staff and see if there’s someone who can do it better. ... I don’t believe there’s a change that I could make right now that would make sense for me or this team to help us win.”
Jacksonville (4-7) hosts Tampa Bay (4-7) on Sunday, hoping to play better after intermission for the first time in more than a month.
The Jaguars trailed Tennessee 7-3 at halftime Sunday before giving up four touchdowns in six plays in the third period and losing 42-20. They trailed Indianapolis 10-7 at the break the previous week before getting outscored 14-0 in the third and falling 33-13. And they trailed Houston 9-3 at the half in London earlier this month before getting outscored 10-0 in the third quarter and losing 26-3.
Jacksonville has been outscored a combined 52-8 in the third quarter the last three games - three losses that turned a .500 team into an AFC afterthought for the 11th time in the last 12 seasons.
“When you get into this point in the year and having gone through it as an assistant, as a head coach ... everyone kind of gets protective and they get isolated,” Marrone said. “We’ve been doing more things together to stay together, to keep our head up, to keep fighting, to try to build up those walls on the outside and not concern ourselves with things that are not going to help us fight our way out of this predicament that we all are responsible for getting ourselves in.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.