Pederson: ‘Start with me’ on blame for Jags woes

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jaguars coach Doug Pederson said he’s still evaluating potential staff changes in the wake of the worst loss in franchise history, adding that everything is on the table.

But he also said he doesn’t want to assign too much blame to one person for Sunday’s loss and the team’s 2-9 start.

“You’ve got to be really, really careful when you start pointing fingers at certain people,” Pederson said Monday. “It’s a dangerous thing and I’m not going to do that.

“As a head coach in this league that’s going through what we’re going through, you’re pointing a finger and if it’s got to be pointed, it needs to be pointed at me. Start with me.”

There has been plenty of that over the past month as the Jaguars have fallen apart in a season that began with owner Shad Khan telling the team the day before training camp began that it was the best squad the franchise had assembled and that he expected it to make the playoffs. Sunday’s 52-6 loss to the Lions — during which the Jaguars allowed 645 yards (second most in team history) and a team-record 52 points — clinched the franchise’s 11th losing season in the past 14 years.

There was speculation after the loss that Pederson, and potentially general manager Trent Baalke, would be fired Monday as a result. However, Pederson conducted his normal 1:45 p.m. ET news conference and said he did not have a meeting scheduled with Khan at that point.

So Pederson operated as normal, conducting team meetings and dismissing the players in the afternoon. The Jaguars are in their bye week, the latest in franchise history. Pederson’s plan is to bring the players in Tuesday morning and then give them the rest of the week off. He said they need a break physically and mentally.

“From a team perspective, not just the defense but a team perspective, the guys are tired,” Pederson said. “Guys are mentally, physically fatigued. This is a good time to step away and take a break and recharge for the last six games.

“… Each Monday, we haven’t felt very good and that also weighs on you. You’re going into the next week, you’re trying to motivate yourself again. You’re trying to get yourself back up for another game. That’s hard. That’s hard emotionally.”

Especially after the past three games. The Jaguars allowed 1,494 yards in losses to Philadelphia, Minnesota and Detroit, the most in a three-game stretch in franchise history. They also managed only 528 yards of offense, the fewest in a three-game stretch in franchise history.

“Where we are and still six games to go, I think it’s time to just hit the reset button and just sort of rewind, kind of get fresh again, coaches and players,” Pederson said. “And the coaches need to — this is what I challenged them to this week — we’ve got to go back and we’ve got to look at everything from a schematic standpoint, player standpoint, personnel standpoint, all that kind of stuff this week.

“If we come out of this bye and we just kind of keep doing the same things and trying to expect different results, it’s probably not going to happen, right? So, we’ve got to do some little things, some minor things. We’ll do it, and that’s what we’re going to spend these next couple of days doing.”